Don McCullin, the renowned British war photographer celebrated for his powerful images of shell-shocked U.S. Marines and harrowing documentation of famine victims, has embarked on a dramatically different artistic journey. His latest book, "The Stillness of Life," coincides with his 90th birthday and showcases a contemplative side of the photographer through his still life arrangements and landscape photography, all captured on traditional black and white film.
The collection represents a significant departure from McCullin's human-focused war photography that made him famous. Instead, it features intimate still life compositions shot in his garden shed at his home in Somerset, England, a practice he has maintained since the early 1980s. Drawing inspiration from Dutch master painters, McCullin employs an unusual technique of using soot from his chimney to create textured backgrounds for his carefully arranged objects.
The objects in McCullin's still life photographs tell stories of his extensive travels around the world. Among his chosen subjects are a bronze dragon from East Asia, a vase discovered in a junk shop, and a Hindu goddess figurine. He thoughtfully combines these disparate inanimate mementos with fresh fruits and flowers, creating compositions that explore the delicate interplay between transience and permanence.
Beyond his shed-based still life work, "The Stillness of Life" includes landscape photographs spanning multiple continents and decades. The collection features images from England's Industrial North, as well as locations in India and Africa, alongside more recent photographs taken near his current home in Southwest England. These landscapes demonstrate McCullin's continued mastery of black and white film photography and his ability to capture the essence of diverse geographical locations.
Despite his celebrated career, McCullin maintains a notably pessimistic view of his professional impact. In a recent interview with The Times of London, the photographer expressed deep doubts about the effectiveness of his work. "It's silly when anyone says, 'Your pictures make such a difference.' They've made no difference whatsoever. I'm preaching to the converted," McCullin told the newspaper. He continued with characteristic bluntness, stating, "I've spent all these years covering wars and they're never going to end."
This introspective mood permeates McCullin's latest work, as he continues to grapple with questions about the purpose and impact of his decades-long career documenting human conflict. The shift to still life photography appears to offer him a more peaceful form of artistic expression, one that allows for quiet contemplation rather than the urgent documentation of human suffering.
"The Stillness of Life" is published by GOST Books and arrives at a significant milestone in McCullin's career. The book's release coincides with a major exhibition titled "Don McCullin: A Desecrated Serenity" at Hauser & Wirth gallery, located at 443 W 18th Street in New York. The exhibition runs through November 8, 2025, providing American audiences with an opportunity to experience McCullin's artistic evolution firsthand and witness how one of photography's most celebrated war correspondents has found new meaning in the quiet beauty of inanimate objects and landscapes.
