Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, British photojournalist Sir Don McCullin documented practically every major conflict around the world, first for the Observer and later the Sunday Times.

But of all these, perhaps the most devastating was the Vietnam War, where he witnessed untold death and destruction.

Now, as the famed war photographer approaches his 91st birthday, he’s created what he’s described as his “last ever book,” revisiting the conflict where several of his iconic images were shot and revealing many previously unseen photos taken during it.

In Vietnam, McCullin takes us on a frightful journey through his stints in the war-torn country over three distinct periods: 1965-1967, 1968 and 1972.

Featuring some 100 black-and-white images and over 20 color frames, of which almost half have never made it into the public eye until now, we see the “devastation, shame, violence, bloodshed and extreme trauma” of the conflict.

Images selected from around 30 rolls of film McCullin used up on each trip to the war paint a visceral picture of what it was like, including some of his better-known images of US marines to “piles of human and mechanical detritus”.

Having recently read McCullin's autobiography, Unreasonable Behaviour, I’m particularly interested in seeing more of the images he created during the Battle of Huế in 1968.

McCullin spent 12 days on the ground with the 5th Marine Regiment here and, in his autobiography, recalls harrowing experiences of coming under shellfire while out in "no man's land" ahead of the advancing US soldiers.

During the ferocious battle, McCullin snapped arguably his most iconic photo, of a shell-shocked US Marine, which I imagine has overshadowed many other gripping frames captured during the ordeal.

Don McCullin's new book Vietnam will be published in October by Gost Books, priced £80 / $95 (AU$152), but preorders are open now.

Three special print editions are also available, all signed by McCullin, for £2,500 ($3,350 / AU$4,760). One is printed by McCullin himself in his darkroom, with two more printed by celebrated photographic printer Brian Dowling.

Finally, a Portfolio Edition (which looks to collate all three signed prints) is available for £6,250 ($8,390 / AU$11,900).

You might also like...

See where McCullin ranks among the 50 best photographers ever, and check out the best books on photogrpahy and the best coffee table photography books.

When Don McCullin stepped into Crowthers Reclamation Yard in Isleworth in 1963, surrounded by broken Roman busts and weathered statuary, he was already establishing his reputation as a photographer documenting conflict and urban decay. What he captured that day – his only self-portrait – has never been exhibited in the UK. Until now.

The image seems oddly prophetic. This was McCullin at the height of his war photography years. Yet here he is, immersed in the classical antiquities that would become a significant preoccupation decades later.

The self-portrait will be unveiled as part of an exhibition titled Don McCullin. 90, at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, UK. For photography enthusiasts, this offers a rare opportunity to trace the entire arc of McCullin's seven-decade career.

What makes the 1963 self-portrait particularly compelling is its prescience. McCullin was then best known for visceral images of gang culture, poverty, and war zones. Yet this photograph, taken at a salvage yard filled with Roman sculpture, hints at an aesthetic sensibility that wouldn't fully emerge until decades later.

Fast forward to his Southern Frontiers series, a 25-year survey of Roman Empire remains, and the connection becomes clear. The 90-year-old photographer has spent recent years documenting broken classical sculptures in museums worldwide, work that forms the centrepiece of a concurrent exhibition, Broken Beauty, at The Holburne Museum, Bath. Those ancient, fragmented faces echo the statuary crowd that witnessed his 1963 self-portrait.

McCullin himself has articulated why these sculptures matter to him: "These are the best antidote to the grim realities of the front line," he said. "I hold in awe the mouldering stone, the fragments of dreams and the mysteries of the vanquished past." Looking at that 1963 self-portrait, it's as if he instinctively understood this therapeutic relationship with antiquities, decades before he could name it.

Conflict to contemplation

The twin exhibitions showcase McCullin's remarkable range. The Holburne Museum show presents his most recent Roman sculpture studies (not previously shown in the UK), made using ink-jet printing that gives the images extraordinary physical presence. This technical choice is significant: bridging contemporary digital output with ancient subjects.

"Over the years going to various wars, this corner of Somerset has saved and restored my sanity," McCullin has said. His black-and-white Somerset landscapes reveal a photographer who understands place's redemptive power. His still lifes, composed in his garden shed, draw inspiration from Flemish and Dutch masters; a different philosophy of photography entirely.

The Roman sculptures at The Holburne Museum, broken survivors from the ancient world, offer their own commentary. These fragmented statues possess a dignity that perhaps only someone who has witnessed human suffering could truly recognise and honour.

And ultimately that 1963 self-portrait, finally getting its UK debut, serves as the connecting thread. McCullin surrounded by ancient faces, at once present and timeless, documenting and documented. It's an image that photographers of any genre might study; not just for its formal qualities, but for what it reveals about creative evolution. 

Sometimes, it seems, a photograph knows more about the photographer's future than the photographer does themselves.

Don McCullin. 90 runs February 14 -April 12 at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton.
Don McCullin: Broken Beauty runs until May 4 at The Holburne Museum, Bath.

Don McCullin has seen things that no person should have to witness. From Cyprus to Cambodia, Biafra to Northern Ireland, the British photographer spent decades enduring some of humanity's worst moments, his camera documenting the full horror of conflict. 

His lens captured starving children, shellshocked soldiers and the aftermath of unspeakable violence. Then he came home to Somerset, England, walked into his garden shed and… started photographing pears.

This jarring transition is the subject of The Stillness of Life, a new book from Gost that arrives as McCullin celebrates his 90th birthday. It's a collection that will surprise anyone who knows him only as a war photographer. And perhaps it reveals something crucial about how photojournalists survive the weight of what they've endured.

Still-lifes in the shed

Despite the switch in subject, his work remains stunning. McCullin's still-lifes, created in a derelict shed on his Somerset property since the early Eighties, feature everything from gladioli to foxgloves arranged alongside bronze dragons and Hindu goddesses.

Having blackened the shed walls with soot to mimic the patina of Dutch master paintings, he carefully constructed these tableaux in the dim light filtering through a grimy window. The results look like Caravaggio for the photographic age: chiaroscuro drama applied to cut flowers and hedgerow mushrooms.

"Over the years going to various wars, this corner of Somerset has saved and restored my sanity," McCullin told The Guardian recently. It's a simple statement that carries enormous weight when you consider the catalog of atrocities this man has witnessed.

So it's perhaps surprising that his landscape photographs, gathered from throughout his career, don't offer such easy pastoral comfort. Indeed, they're frequently bleak: denuded trees against lowering skies, industrial wastelands, biblical cloudscapes over empty fields.

There's something almost ominous in many of these images, as if the photographer can't help but see potential battlegrounds even in peaceful countryside.

A key memory perhaps sheds some light on this. In 1940, the 5-year-old McCullin arrived at Frome station in Somerset, clutching a gas mask and his sister's hand, after being evacuated from London's bombing. That first encounter with the English countryside – safety after terror – created an imprint that would last 85 years.

The moment is right

The timing of The Stillness of Life coincides with McCullin's first solo exhibition in New York, A Desecrated Serenity at Hauser & Wirth in New York City, which runs until November 08. It's remarkable that a photographer of his stature is only now getting this New York spotlight, but perhaps the moment is right.

Because let's be clear; McCullin's still lifes aren't a lesser work or a retirement hobby. They're masterclasses in lighting, composition and printing: the same technical brilliance that made his conflict photography so devastating. He controls shadows and highlights with surgical precision, creating depth and drama whether his subject is a dying soldier or a dying flower. His prints are legendary for their tonal range, achieved through decades of darkroom mastery.

To me, what this book proves is that great photographers don't lose their vision when they change subjects; they simply refocus it. McCullin's war images showed us the worst of humanity. His Somerset work shows us that, even after witnessing hell, it's possible to find peace in a pear sitting in a kitchen sink, photographed with the same intensity he once brought to battlefields. 

That's not a retreat from important work. That's survival. And in a way, its own kind of courage.

The Stillness of Life is published by Gost Books in the UK on October 25 for £80, and will go on sale in the US from December 30 for $100.

You might also like…

See where McCullin ranks among the best photographers ever, and check out more of the best books on photography.

While photography is about freezing moments, it's often helpful to unfreeze the stories behind them. And these photography autobiographies provide just that.

From the death and destruction captured by Don McCullin to the intimate family portraits of Sally Mann, these fascinating books offer a rare glimpse into the lives, minds and motivations of those who have shaped the discipline.

Expect personal confessions, creative breakthroughs, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes that bring both the struggles and triumphs of a photographer’s life into sharp focus.

1. The Daybooks of Edward Weston – Edward Weston (1886–1958)

One of the masters of 20th-century photography, Edward Weston’s diaries were written between 1922 and 1934 but compiled and published posthumously in 1966. The Daybooks document the peak of his artistic development, including his iconic still lifes, nudes and landscapes, and provide a first-hand account of his creative process.

2. Eye to I: The Autobiography of a Photographer – Erwin Blumenfeld (1887–1969)

Erwin Blumenfeld wrote his autobiography in the 1950s, but it wasn’t published until 1979, years after his death. Eye to I captures the full arc of his life; from his early days in Berlin to working as a fashion photographer in Paris and New York. More broadly, it offers a unique posthumous portrait of a creative innovator reflecting on turbulent times.

3. An Autobiography – Ansel Adams (1902–1984)

In An Autobiography, landscape photography legend Ansel Adams traces his artistic journey from his early days as a pianist to his transformation into a master photographer and environmental activist. Written shortly before his death and published one year later, in 1985, this book captures the wisdom and reflections of a master photographer.

4. Portrait of Myself – Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971)

Published in 1963, this autobiography was written near the end of American photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White’s career, after she'd been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. It’s both a retrospective of her groundbreaking achievements and a testament to her determination in the face of adversity.

5. A Choice of Weapons – Gordon Parks (1912–2006)

Released in 1966, this memoir marked the mid-point of Gordon Parks’ extraordinary career as a photographer, filmmaker and writer. He'd already made history by becoming Life magazine’s first black photographer, and used this book to chronicle his early struggles against racism and poverty; choosing the camera as his “weapon” for social change.

6. To Smile in Autumn – Gordon Parks (1912–2006)

Published in 1979, Gordon Parks' second memoir came just as he was expanding his creative work beyond photography into film and literature. Reflecting on his later career, he thoughtfully examines the successes and challenges of being a black artist navigating mid-20th-century America, while continuing to advocate for social change.

7. In Retrospect – Eve Arnold (1912–2012)

Released in 1995, In Retrospect came as celebrated photojournalist Eve Arnold looked back over four decades of work with Magnum Photos. Written late in her career, it does a stand-out job of reflecting her experiences photographing cultural icons and major historical moments.

8. Slightly Out of Focus – Robert Capa (1913–1954)

Written in 1947, just two years after the end of the Second World War, this memoir vividly recounts the Hungarian-American's experiences as a war photographer. It’s a must-read account of a man considered by many to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.

9. Revelations – Diane Arbus (1923–1971)

Published posthumously in 2003, Revelations is both a retrospective and a deeply personal window into the life and work of Diane Arbus. The book combines her haunting photographs with diary entries, letters, and other intimate writings that reveal the complex mind behind her groundbreaking portraits of marginalised communities.

10. Autobiography – Helmut Newton (1920–2004)

Helmut Newton’s Autobiography was released in 2003, just one year before his death. It’s a candid and often mischievous reflection on his long career in fashion and erotic photography. Written during the twilight of the German-Australian photographer's life, he pulls no punches in discussing the people and events that shaped his provocative style.

11. An Autobiography – Richard Avedon (1923–2004)

First published in 1993, An Autobiography was released during the later part of  Richard Avedon's career, as he transitioned from fashion work to more personal, introspective projects such as In the American West. It's as much a retrospective of his images as it is a narrative of his life and insight into his artistic mindset.

12. The Lines of My Hand – Robert Frank (1924–2019)

Originally published in 1972, this memoir came during a transitional period in the Swiss-American's career, when he was moving from photography into filmmaking. Bringing together his incredible images with some fascinating personal reflections, the book is an intoxicating visual diary of a restless creative mind.

13. Pictures and People: A Search for Visual Truth and Social Justice – Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret (1929–2022)

Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret was an American photographer, book publisher and civil rights activist. In 1951, she became the first woman to photograph herself giving birth. Published in 2019, three years before her death, this memoir encapsulates a career that was dedicated to capturing rural communities and advocating for social justice.

14. Unreasonable Behaviour – Don McCullin (1935–)

Celebrated for his work everywhere from Vietnam to Northern Ireland, Don McCullin is perhaps the world's most celebrated war photographer. In Unreasonable Behaviour, he reflects on the personal toll this has taken on him, from near-death experiences to the emotional weight of documenting humankind at its worst. Published in 1990, when McCullin had already cemented his reputation, it serves both as a gripping memoir and a meditation on the ethics of photojournalism.

15. Look Again – David Bailey (1938–)

One of the key figures of Swinging London in the 1960s, David Bailey revolutionised the art of portrait photography with his pared-down style. In Look Again, published in 2020, he offers a late-life take on his personal journey from working-class East London to becoming a fashion-world legend, working with cultural icons such as Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton and Kate Moss.

16. Memories of a Dog – Daido Moriyama (1938–)

Daidō Moriyama is a Japanese photographer best known for his arresting black-and-white street photography. This memoir, first published in 1984, was written when he was already a key figure in Japanese street photography, and captures his raw, unfiltered approach to both life and art.

17. Taking My Time – Joel Meyerowitz (1938–)

This career-spanning memoir, published in 2012, came when Joel Meyerowitz had become firmly established as a pioneer of American street photography. It’s both a retrospective of his work and a personal reflection on how his artistic voice developed from the 1960s onwards.

18. Seen Behind the Scene – Mary Ellen Mark (1940-2015)

Mary Ellen Mark was an American photographer best known for capturing people on the margins of society, with a keen interest in both subcultures and social issues. Published in 2008, Seen Behind the Scene is a late-career reflection on her work in Hollywood and beyond, as well as offering a deep dive into her photography process.

19. Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This: My Life in the Jazz World – Val Wilmer (1941– )

Released in 1989, Val Wilmer’s memoir came after decades of documenting jazz and blues culture. It’s a thrilling and engaging reflection on the British photographer's career up to that date, as well as covering her work as a writer and cultural historian.

20. From My Land to the Planet – Sebastião Salgado (1944–2025)

Published in 2014, this memoir reflects on Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado’s decades-long career as a documentarian of social issues, migration and the environment. Written after the completion of his famed Genesis series, it combines a twin focus on both his personal history and his environmental activism.

21. Annie Leibovitz at Work – Annie Leibovitz (1949–)

Eight years after being declared a Living Legend by The Library of Congress, portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz released this book in 2008, looking back on decades of work with the likes of Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Vogue. It's full of fascinating insights into how Leibovitz approaches assignments and iconic shoots, while also reflecting on her creative evolution over time.

22. Hold Still – Sally Mann (1951–)

Famed for her large-format black-and-white photographs, Sally Mann published this memoir in 2015. It came at a reflective point in her career, decades after the controversy surrounding her naturalistic nudes of children in Immediate Family. In the book, she looks back on her Southern upbringing, her family, and the moral complexities of her work.

23. Road to Seeing – Dan Winters (1962–)

First released in 2014, Road to Seeing chronicles Dan Winters’ path from aspiring artist to one of the most respected portrait photographers of his generation. Written around the middle of his career, it does a great job of blending autobiography with lessons on developing a creative eye.

24. It’s What I Do – Lynsey Addario (1973–)

Released in 2015, It’s What I Do chronicles Lynsey Addario's career as one of the world’s leading conflict photographers. Written while she was still covering major global events, it reflects on both her early career and the personal sacrifices required to work in war zones.

First released in 2014, Road to Seeing chronicles Dan Winters’ path from aspiring artist to one of the most respected portrait photographers of his generation. Written around the middle of his career, it does a great job of blending autobiography with lessons on developing a creative eye.

25. There and Back: Photographs from the Edge – Jimmy Chin (1973–)

Published in 2021, this memoir captures Jimmy Chin at the height of his career as a world-class adventure photographer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker. There and Back looks back on decades of risk-taking expeditions and also delves into the philosophy behind capturing the extremes of nature.

Showing some of the past century’s iconic documentary photographs, The Camera Never Lies is an exhibition running at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, England. 

Open 20 October 20, it is one of the strands in a six-part series of programming that considers the question ‘What is Truth’? 

Co-curated by the award-winning former photojournalist Harriet Logan, The Camera Never Lies explores the impact and influence that photography has had on shaping – and in some cases, distorting – the narrative of major global events. 

Visitors to the exhibition, hosted in one of the best gallery spaces outside London, initially encounter a ‘main wall’ of 48 photographs that show key moments over the last 100 years. 

Many of these are familiar to us, captured by Don McCullin, Dorothea Lange, Robert Capa, Kevin Carter, Steve McCurry, Susan Meiselas, Nick Ut, Bruce Davidson and many more. 

From there, The Camera Never Lies continues: one area explores issues of authorship in modern documentary photography, and another reflects on how artificial intelligence algorithms interpret images. 

We caught up with Harriet Logan just after the exhibition opened to find out more about it. 

Visit The Camera Never Lies exhibition

The Camera Never Lies is open until Sunday October 20 at the Sainsbury Centre, Norfolk Road, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. 

Opening hours: Tues-Friday: 9.30am-6pm; Sat-Sun: 10am-5pm. Find out more at: www.sainsburycentre.ac.uk 

The Sainsbury Centre houses the world-renowned art collection of Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury so is a great day out – while you're there, check out works by Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and many other artists. 

The full version of this interview appears in issue 283 (July 2024) of Digital Camera World magazine. See the link below for our latest subscription deal. 

All subscribers to Digital Camera magazine can now access digital back issues dating from 2009 (when using iOS) or 2012 (when using the Pocketmags Magazine Newsstand app or the Pocketmags website).

Life, Death and Everything in Between is the new book by Don McCullin, one of the most revered photographers living today. McCullin's career started in the Fifties, and he is widely recognized as one of the best photographers ever for his documentary and conflict photography. The new book looks back at his illustrious career, sharing new and previously unseen work, and reassesses his most recognizable photographic projects. 

According to Gost, the publisher working with McCullin, "The book aims to be neither a retrospective nor definitive publication but to present a selection of images valued by McCullin with the benefits of both hindsight and wisdom, encapsulating his prolific, varied, and ongoing career."

McCullin's career has been most notable for his incredible war and documentary photographs. He worked for major British newspapers, documenting the reality of war, and from Europe to Africa and the Middle East he captured the impact of conflict around the globe. At a time when the army typically controlled war photography, McCullin would provide photographs that showed the realities on both sides of the war, with a moral imperative to depict war as it really was.

Aside from his photojournalism, he has also produced projects in other genres of photography. Looking back through his archives of images from the Fifties up until last year, Life, Death and Everything in Between showcases the progression through each stage of his career. 

Although not specifically separated throughout the book, the images start with his early photographs growing up in working-class North London, and present chronologically through war and conflict, documentary both in the UK and abroad, landscape and still life, and then finally ending with his most recent body of work: linking the legacy of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean and the latest, previously unpublished landscapes made near his home in Somerset.

To accompany the book release, McCullin's recent work on the Roman Empire has recently gone on exhibition. Don McCullin in Rome – a Retrospective is on display from October 10 – January 28 at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, Italy. Don McCullin is represented by Hamiltons Gallery, London.

I am personally drawn to McCullin's early work made in the UK, as it provides an insight into my culture and into the life that my grandparents would have lived. This early work shows an insight into the kind of photographer he was, and where he was to go, as he started by capturing the world around him in the same way that he later captured the conflicts of war, with an unbiased documentarian lens. 

McCullin has a unique style in both aesthetic and approach, which makes it difficult to differentiate whether an image is from the UK in the Sixties or Kurdistan in the Nineties, enabling the subject to be the real message of his work.

A retrospective, of sorts, Life, Death and Everything in Between provides an overview of one of the greatest British photographers to have ever picked up a camera. It will be available from November 06 2023 priced $95 / £80 (approximately AU$150). You can pre-order directly from Gost Books, at Amazon US or  Amazon UK. 

Don McCullin made his name using some of the best film cameras ever made. Take a look at the best 35mm film to capture that classic look yourself. 

Clive Booth came to photography late in his career after spending 20 years as a graphic designer, having worked with major clients around the world from British Airways to Adidas.

Attributing his professional photographic success to one serendipitous event would be to completely disregard his skill, dedication and drive for visual artistry and communication. But it was a lavish tribute to fashion photographer Nick Knight in 2006, hosted by Moët & Chandon, that provided a career catalyst. 

“Moët and Chandon had seen the kind of work I was doing and really liked it, so they’d started commissioning me as an event photographer for them. Nick Knight phoned me up the next day, which was a bit of a dream, and he said, ‘I’ve seen your work. I really like it. Who are you?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m a graphic designer, but I love photography’.”

Booth was invited to shoot at London Fashion Week the following year, and he went on to become Knight’s regular set photographer. “He just said, ‘Clive, do your thing,’ and I did.” Commissions soon followed, and Booth’s career as a fashion, beauty and portrait photographer and filmmaker began. “Within just a few weeks, MAC was sending me to Milan to make films of Dean and Dan Caten, Dsquared². And then, I was off in New York. It was a whirlwind, that time.”

Would Booth have found his way into photography eventually if he hadn’t been to that party? “Before this interview, I was asking myself that, and I honestly don’t know the answer. At the time, I’d actually worked on a book as a designer for another photographer friend of mine, Doug Menuez. He was the guy who really inspired me to pick up the camera. Doug was working with Steve Jobs when I first met him in the mid ’90s in San Francisco, and I was thinking, ‘You know what, I really like this’. I started to commission photographers to shoot in the way Doug shoots. His approach really stayed with me, and I evolved as a photographer because I loved the way he isolated a subject and the way he got the connection. 

"He and I then went on to work together. And he supported me very much when I said I was going to start shooting. We all need that mentor, that help, and I’m very much about giving that back now.”

Through Doug, Booth also met Mark George, who went on to become his agent. “He has represented some of the greats and still does: Richard Avedon, Terence Donovan, Sir Don McCullin. When you have an agent like Mark George, what they’re looking for is a tone of voice. They’re looking for something that is distinctive, something that a photographer or a creative offers that somehow is different, and, of course, is marketable.”

Booth’s distinctive style encapsulates selective, shallow focus and use of natural light. “That’s what I got a name for, this sort of ethereal quality. I’ve carried that all the way through, even to this day. Even with landscape photography now, I’ll shoot with telephoto lenses or portrait lenses.”

Sir Don McCullin was and is one of Clive’s great influences, but he also discovered painting masters, such as Joseph Wright, from an early age. “When I went to the Derby museum at the age of nine and saw his work, it had this huge impact on me – how light creates atmosphere and the expressions on the faces. That triggered this interest in art.”

From the outside, so many iconic careers seem to have had one lucky break. In reality, Booth has always prepared for new opportunities, reinforcing the idea that you make your own luck. “You’ve got to have the radar on all the time, because opportunity is around the next corner and you could miss [that]. I came to photography late, and Nick giving me that opportunity at the age of 40 was a huge deal for me. Without that foot into the career, it wouldn’t have happened, I don’t think. I certainly wouldn’t have had the MAC cosmetics, the L’Oréal, all the fashion films that I did, all that stuff I got known for originally.”

Throughout his career, Booth has also been a passionate teacher and speaker. In 2019, he started working on the Canon Young People program, and has previously taught on the BA and MA graphic design courses at Derby university. 

He’s also been working with the Ideas Foundation and is now an advisory board member for the charity. “Our goal is to give young people the opportunities that they may not ordinarily get, and it’s all about inclusivity and diversity. We did a project with West Cumbria in 2019, working with The National Association for the teaching of English, and it just fit my skill set perfectly because I was able to work with young people, teach them camera skills, but most importantly, how important narrative is in communication.”

Booth wanted to continue to teach when the Covid-19 lockdown began last year, so he invested in being able to livestream. “It began with a simple HDMI into one camera, and it has ended up with six cameras, two computers, and 12 months of reeducating myself. I’m now sitting in this position where I can mix between cameras. I’m giving livestreams with multiple cameras using actual TV broadcast software, and I’m doing that regularly now for Canon, too.”

Booth has been a Canon ambassador for many years, and making a film for Canon Connected was the first thing he did when the Covid-19 lockdown started. He was originally asked to make a short film explaining how he uses lighting for portraiture, something that photographers could do from home, but this quickly became much more ambitious, and he created a 24-minute mini-documentary reflecting on the best portraiture in his career. Including 136 separate setups, the final video was simply and aptly titled Home. 

Without an editor, sound designer, or a colourist, for the first time in his life he was in a position where he couldn’t turn to other people. “Even on the more recent film projects, I have a cinematographer. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it on my own. I cannot even begin to tell you how many takes it took me to get some of those pieces to camera and how many expletives later until it was right. 

But, I was very, very focused. I make the joke, ‘A film made by me and my cat,’ because that’s kind of what it was, really. It was all about light, getting the right time of day, composition, the right lens choices. It took me about five solid weeks, that film, and I’m talking long hours.”

What’s interesting when you watch Home is how effortless and peaceful the tone is. “Everybody tells me how mindful it is. If they only knew. But it was an evolution, and it was that whole mindful approach that I wanted to give it. We’re very fortunate where we live, but last year everything stopped… all shoots stopped. It was like the world just stood still. And, of course, in the background, there was all the anxiety going on.”

The project gave Booth a real focus amidst the background chaos, and focus is something that he talks to young people about regularly. “We all, as human beings, need challenge and purpose. They’re the two key things, really, and it gave me both. What’s been nice about that Home film is that I’ve had that at the top of my page, top of all my social media for the last year, and I still get a great response. It’s kind of like a sales tool for me. It says who I am, what I do, the little stories behind what I do, and it shows the eclectic nature of my career.”

Throughout our conversation – and Booth is nothing but generous with his time and answers – we return to several themes. He is a perfectionist, purpose-seeker, and very aware that whatever career success he has achieved came late. “I don’t want to cock it up ever, you know? I’m never going to produce something that I’m not proud of. You’re going to be judged by your last article, feature, whatever it might be, and it’s true.”

If you’re a perfectionist, as Booth is, making mistakes doesn’t come easy. But livestreaming has taught him that you make them, and that they’re vital for progress. “You’ve got to put yourself outside your comfort zone. I was continually evolving and developing. And now, I get, for example, asked to interview Martin Parr for Canon. It’s all live, so it’s quite terrifying. But, at the same time, when it’s over, you’re buzzing, especially when it works. I have had to adapt many times in my career: graphic designer, photographer, filmmaker, speaker, teacher, writer. And now, I tentatively use the word broadcaster.”

Booth comes across as a great innovator, and he has been shooting with Canon kit for the last two decades. “I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had many, many, firsts over the last 15 years with Canon, starting with the EOS 5D and ending up now with mirrorless. I’ve been an early adopter all my life, with computers and technology. I do have an interest in technology. You might say I’m kind of intuitive with technology.”

Since moving to the Canon mirrorless system, he estimates that his shot ratio has probably halved. But is there still too much focus on the technical aspects of shooting in the industry today? “You know, there’s a T-shirt knocking around; it’s got a dial on it and it says, ‘You’re not a photographer until,’ and it’s got the M in red. What they’re saying is you’re not a photographer until you can use your camera on manual. I don’t give a stuff. My EOS R5 now, it’s got head recognition, eye recognition... 

"All I have to do is pick that camera up and press the button, and that is what I want my camera to do. I have it on AV mode, so I rack up the ISO, exposure value and the aperture. I know how a camera works, and, if I had to, I’d work with Manual, but I want to move fast and take great pictures. 

“Interestingly, when I was talking to Martin Parr as part of The Photography Show, he brought this up. He said, ‘Clive, I bet you work on Manual’. I said, ‘Actually, Martin, I don’t. I don’t work on manual,’ and I went through the T-shirt story, and we had a bit of a smile about it. He said, ‘I tell you what, I work on Program. People were saying that P is now not for program, P is for Parr.’”

For Booth, cameras and lenses are enablers. “You put them between you and your subject. And, what distinguishes a good photographer is their tone of voice, just like a writer and like a journalist. If you can put your tone of voice into your work and you can tell your own story in a way that others don’t, then you’re going to be marketable. Martin Parr is a perfect example. You look at a Martin Parr picture, it could not have been taken by anybody else. This tone of voice, this stamping your DNA into your work is so fundamentally important.”

Booth’s commission list is impressive, including ad campaigns, commercials and short films for George Michael, Canon Europe, Intel, H&M, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Aston Martin. Despite this, he’s always working on a personal project. “I give talks and people wonder how I can afford to have personal projects. My answer to that is you can’t afford not to. A personal project comes from your heart, something that you’re passionate about. And if it’s a story you want to tell, it’s going to be of interest to other people, too.”

His most prominent personal work is the Ileachs (i-lacs) Project, documenting the Scottish island of Islay and its indigenous people. “I’ve been going there for 25 years. I first visited making a film about sailing and whisky – two things best left well apart. The work is hugely important to me, because I’ve got this bond with the people there and it’s like a second home. I wanted to tell their story through portraiture, landscape, seascape, flora, fauna, so I started doing that in 2013. 

"Canon Europe Pro Print saw my work, liked it, and then funded me to go back and do several weeks’ worth. They used that work, that got spotted, and we then went back and launched the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 with my work, at that point, with the RNLI.”

Personal shoots fuel inspiration and passion for the art form, but they also enable photographers to shoot without the restraint of a creative brief. “You can create something new. I gave this work a particular look. It was dark. It was gritty. It wasn’t glamorous looking in any way. But then my agent got a call from Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy in Paris who had seen it and wanted to commission me. I shot their campaign work for Glenmorangie and Ardbeg whisky for three years on the back of doing all this personal work.”

Booth may have adapted his work in the last year alone, but his whole career is characterised by curiosity and change. “If I hadn’t adapted, I don’t know where I’d have been. Where would I have been from a commercial perspective? Where would I have been mentally? I wouldn’t have had the challenge. I wouldn’t have had the purpose. I count myself as a pretty lazy person a lot of the time. But, if I’m motivated and I’ve got something to work for, I’ll work night and day until I can perfect it. 

“I go into a depression after every shoot because I look at the edit and I think, ‘Oh, this is awful. This is terrible.’ My manager Mark expects it now. We have a laugh about it, then the work grows on me and I start to love it. I know I’m not alone in this, but I’m almost never happy with anything that I do.”

So what’s next? “I don’t know. I’d like to do more of this, more conversations, because I’m enjoying it. I love talking to people. I love meeting people. Photography and filmmaking is so much about the interpersonal connection that you make. Sometimes, you can actually almost stop yourself doing something new, as you don’t want to take the risk of getting it wrong. But, the true sort of measure of somebody is how they bounce back from mistakes.”

Clive’s current Canon kit

1. Canon EOS R5
2. Canon EOS R6
3. Canon RF 50mm F1/2 L USM
4. Canon RF 85mm F1. 2L USM
5. Canon RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM

Read more: 
The best canon lenses in 2021
Canon R5 used to shoot Nigella's cooking show
Landscape pro Bilal Hussain shows us his essential Canon kit

A major retrospective of legendary British photographer Don McCullin has reopened opened at Tate Liverpool. The Tate Britain exhibition which was first shown in London in 2019, originally opened in Liverpool back in September, but was closed due to restrictions brought in by the government to restrict the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The major exhibition features over 250 photographs taken over a 60 year career – and which have all been printed by Sir Don McCullin himself in his home darkroom.

McCullin is best known as a war photographer – and has captured images of conflict from around the world including Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Biafra. His early images were often taken at great personal risk (his Nikon camera once saved his life, taking the bullet that was aimed at him in Cambodia). 

Alongside his iconic documentary work, the exhibition will show his travel assignments and his long-term passion with landscape and still life which he has turned his camera to more frequently in the last 30 years. 

Now aged 84, McCullin began taking photographs in the 1950s, documenting his surroundings and local community in his native Finsbury Park, London. In 1958 his photograph The Guvnors, a portrait of a notorious local gang, was published in The Observer, launching his career as a photojournalist.  

Working first for The Observer and then The Sunday Times Magazine, McCullin went on to capture major conflicts around the world from Vietnam and the Congo to Cyprus and Beirut. The exhibition includes some of McCullin’s most iconic photographs including Shell-shocked US Marine, The Battle of Hue 1968, Starving Twenty Four Year Old Mother with Child, Biafra 1968 and Northern Ireland, The Bogside, Londonderry 1971. 

Alongside McCullin’s hand-printed silver gelatin prints, the exhibition also includes the photographer’s magazine spreads, contact sheets, his helmet, and that very Nikon camera which took a bullet for him in 1970.

The exhibition will now until 9 September 2021 at Tate Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock gallery. Admission is £13, or free for members. Gallery opening times are 10am to 5.50pm, seven days a week. 

Read more
Don McCullin on being a photographer, in 10 mind-blowing quotes

The 50 best photographers ever

Don McCullin biopic will be directed by Angelina Jolie and star Tom Hardy

Actress and star Angela Jolie is set to direct a biopic of the British photojournalist Sir Don McCullin, with Tom Hardy portraying the lead. 

The film is being adapted from McCullin’s 1990 autobiography Unreasonable Behaviour, and will share a title of the same name. Sir Don McCullin is one of world's most prolific war photographers. Born in London, he sold his first image to the Observer in 1959, and between 1966 and 1984, covered international conflict zones as an overseas correspondent – documenting crises such as the Falklands War and the construction of the Berlin Wall – for the Sunday Times Magazine.

This won't be Jolie's first time in the director chair, and the war drama isn't a new genre for her either. Her debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011) was an American anti-war film, a powerful story about a man and a woman and a country divided.

Jolie has directed and written several further war dramas since: Unbroken (2014), and First They Killed My Father (2017) .

The latter featured in Netflix's catalogue of original feature-lengths, and it was this film which persuaded McCullin to work with her on the adaptation of his autobiography for the big screen.

According to The Guardian, Jolie is humbled to have a chance to bring Don McCullin’s life to film. “I was drawn to his unique combination of fearlessness and humanity – his absolute commitment to witnessing the truth of war, and his empathy and respect for those who suffer its consequences. 

"We hope to make a film that is as uncompromising as Don’s photography, about the extraordinary people and events he witnessed, and the rise and fall of a unique era in journalism.”

Now 85, McCullin lives in Somerset, England. While his photographic subjects are now more pastoral in nature, he’s be best known for his iconic black and white images of war, conflict and poverty.

In an interview with Martin Parr at the Martin Parr foundation that we recorded in late 2018, McCullin reflected on the role photography has had on his life and career. “Photography has given me an amazing life. Without it I would be nothing and I would have nothing.

“But I’ve looked at some of the most horrible things you can imagine in this world, and when you are standing in front of a naked landscape in Somerset, these things never go away. I love photography, and paid a huge price for it.”

The film is being produced by Working Title alongside Tom Hardy’s own company, Hardy Son & Baker.

It will be titled Unreasonable Behavior after McCullin’s autobiography of the same name and the story centred around his coverage of international conflicts.

Read more

If you want to improve your technique, you need to turn to the best. Throughout history, expert photographers have shared their wisdom, offering insights into their creative processes and philosophies. And in this collection, we present 100 thought-provoking quotes from renowned photographers across a range of eras and styles.

From pioneers such as Ansel Adams to contemporary icons such as Annie Leibovitz, their wisdom can shed a unique light on the power of the lens and the photographer's eye. The quotes we've chosen touch on a range of topics, from the photographer's role in society to advice on how to improve your technique.

So whether you're a seasoned professional or an aspiring enthusiast, these pearls of wisdom will inspire you to see the world differently and push the boundaries of your craft.

Best short quotes on photography

1. "Only photograph what you love."
Tim Walker

2. “I didn’t write the rules. Why should I follow them?”
W Eugene Smith

3. "If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera."
Lewis Hine

4. "The first 10,000 shots are the worst." `
Helmut Newton

5. "Photography: so many attempts - so few masterpieces."
James Elliott

6. "For every negative that is a disappointment, there is one that is a joy."
Edward S Curtis

7. “Photography’s 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent moving furniture.”
Gregory Heisler

8. “It’s more important to click with people than to click the shutter.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt

9. “Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”
Peter Adams

10. “I think good dreaming is what leads to good photographs.”
Wayne Miller

11. “Photography helps people to see.”
Berenice Abbott

12. “The best camera is the one that’s with you.”
Chase Jarvis

13. “Wherever there is light, one can photograph.”
Alfred Stieglitz

14. “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
Dorothea Lange

Best photography quotes: What is photography?

15. “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
Don McCullin

16. Making a photograph is rather like writing a paragraph or a short piece, and putting together a whole string of photographs is like producing a piece of writing in many ways. There is the possibility of making coherent statements in an interesting, subtle, complex way."
David Goldblatt

17. “Photography is a response that has to do with the momentary recognition of things. Suddenly you’re alive. A minute later there was nothing there. I just watched it evaporate. You look one moment and there’s everything, next moment it’s gone. Photography is very philosophical.”
Joel Meyerowitz

18. “To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces.”
Ansel Adams

19. “Photographing a cake can be art.”
Irving Penn

20. “You can’t teach people photography, they’ve got to learn how to do it the best way possible for them. They can learn from looking at pictures... but they don’t really get intimate with the medium until they’ve made a few bad shots.”
Cecil Beaton

21. “It isn’t the alphabet that’s important. The important thing is what you are writing, what you are expressing. The same thing goes for photography.”
Andre Kertesz

22. “A lot of people seem to think that art or photography is about the way things look, or the surface of things. [...] They don't understand that it's not about a style or a look or a setup. It's about emotional obsession and empathy.“
Nan Goldin

Best photography quotes: What makes a good picture?

23. “If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it rips out your heart, that’s a good picture.“
Eddie Adams

24. “Photography is truth. And cinema is truth twenty-four times a second.”
Jean-Luc Godard

25. “If you don’t have anything to say, your photographs are not going to say much.”
Gordon Parks

26. “The best pictures differentiate themselves by nuances…a tiny relationship – either a harmony or a disharmony – that creates a picture.”
Ernst Haas

27. “Just because people use Instagram and take cellphone pictures, it doesn’t mean the pictures are meaningful, any more than a text someone sends a friend is great literature. Is it something that’s going to remain? Is it going to inspire us?”
Steve McCurry

28. “To me a photograph is a page from life, and that being the case, it must be real.”
Weegee

29. "A good photograph is like a good hound dog, dumb, but eloquent."
Eugène Atget

30. "The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed."
Anne Geddes

31. "A photograph is a collision between a person with a camera and reality. The photograph is typically as interesting as the collision is."
Charles Harbutt

32. "A good picture is born from a state of grace. Grace becomes manifest when one is freed from conventions, free as a child in his first discovery of reality. The game is then to organize the triangle."
Sergio Larrain

Best quotes on the fundamental principles of photography

33. “Photography is not about the thing photographed. It is about how that thing looks photographed.”
Garry Winogrand

34. “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”
Diane Arbus

35. “The magic of photography is metaphysical. What you see in the photograph isn't what you saw at the time. The real skill of photography is organised visual lying." Terence Donovan

36. “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” Dorothea Lange

37. “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.”
Andy Warhol

38. “Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.”
Ambrose Bierce

39. “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” Diane Arbus

40. “It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things, but in photography... it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.”
David Bailey

41. “Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”
Man Ray

42. “Photography is a medium in which if you don’t do it then, very often you don’t do it at all, because it doesn’t happen twice. A rock will probably always be more or less there just the way you saw it yesterday. But other things change, they’re not always there the day after or the week after.”
Paul Strand

43. “Ultimately, simplicity is the goal in every art, and achieving simplicity is one of the hardest things to do, yet it’s easily the most essential.” Pete Turner

44. “You must let the person looking at the photograph go some of the way to finishing it. You should offer them a seed that will grow and open up their minds.” Robert Doisneau

45. “All the technique in the world doesn’t compensate for the inability to notice.” Elliott Erwitt

Best quotes on how to approach a shoot

46. “Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.”
David Alan Harvey

47. “There is no such thing as taking too much time, because your soul is in that picture.”
Ruth Bernhard

48. “The key is to photograph your obsessions; whether that’s old people’s hands or skyscrapers. Think of a blank canvas, because that’s what you’ve got, and then think about what you want to see – not anyone else.”
David Lachapelle

49. "The satisfaction comes from working next to 500 photographers and coming away with something different."
David Burnett

50. “I think a photograph, of whatever it might be – a landscape, a person – requires personal involvement. That means knowing your subject, not just snapping away at what’s in front of you.”
Frans Lanting

51. “I can’t tell you how many pictures I’ve missed, ignored, trampled or otherwise lost, just ’cause I’ve been so hell-bent on getting the shot I think I want.”
Joe McNally

52. "The pitfall of photography is that you can end up looking at everything through a camera, instead of seeing it for itself. The viewfinder isolates you. When you look through one, you're cutting everything else out of your vision. The camera can open many doors, but sometimes you need to put it down and live."
Maggie Steber

53. "If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough."
Robert Capa

54. “If I knew what the picture was going to be like, I wouldn’t make it. It was almost like it was made already... the challenge is more about trying to make what you can’t think of.”
Cindy Sherman

The importance of instinct

55. "If you want to make good photographs, a camera has to be second nature to you. Devoting too much attention to technical decisions can interfere with your creative processes."
Robert Farber

56. “It would be mistaken to suppose that any of the best photography is come at by intellection; it is like all art, essentially the result of an intuitive process, drawing on all that the artist is rather than on anything he thinks, far less theorizes about -
Helen Levitt

57. "It seems to me that women have a bigger chance at success in photography than men… Women are quicker and more adaptable than men. And I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities more quickly than men."
Lee Miller

58. “It is very hard to say where you’re going until you get there. That kind of thing is based very much on instinct. As a photographer, one of the most important lessons I have learnt is that you have to learn to listen to and trust your own instinct. It has helped to guide me – this far at least.”
James Nachtwey

59. "Technique undoubtedly helps make photography magical, but I prefer to work with atmosphere. I think that the obsession with technique is a male thing. Boy's toys. They love playing... but once you've perfected something you have to start searching for a new toy. I would rather search for a new model or location."
Ellen von Unwerth

60. “Photography concentrates one’s eye on the superficial. For that reason it obscures the hidden life which glimmers through the outlines of things like a play of light and shade. One can’t catch that even with the sharpest lens. One has to grope for it by feeling.”
Franz Kafka

61. “To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
Edward Weston

62. “The better images occur when you’re moving to the fringes of your own understanding. That's where self-doubt and risk taking are likely to occur. It’s when you trust what’s happening at a non-intellectual non-conscious level that you can produce work that later resonates, often in a way that you can’t articulate a response to."
Jerry Uelsmann

63. “The secret of photography is the camera takes on the character and personality of the handler.”
Walker Evans

64. “It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart, and head.”
Cartier-Bresson

65. “The camera is a remarkable instrument. Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand.”
Margaret Bourke-White

66. "Witness is borne and puzzles come together at the photographic moment, which is very simple and complete. The mind-finger presses the release on the silly machine and it stops time and holds what its jaws can encompass and what the light will stain."
Lee Freidlander

Photography technique

67. “Self-conscious artiness is fatal, but it certainly would not hurt to study composition in general. Having a basic understanding of composition would help construct a better organized image.”
Berenice Abbott

68. “I go straight in very close to people, and I do that because it’s the only way you can get the picture. You go right up to them. Even now, I don’t find it easy. I don’t announce it. I pretend to be focusing elsewhere. If you take someone’s photo, it is very difficult not to look at them just after. But it’s the one thing that gives the game away. I don’t try and hide what I’m doing – that would be folly.”
Martin Parr

69. “Black and white are the colours of photography. To me they symbolise the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.”
Robert Frank

70. “When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!”
Ted Grant

71. “In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.”
August Sander

72. “The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.”
Susan Sontag

73. "The more specific you are, the more general it’ll be.”
Diane Arbus

74. “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Robert Capa

75. “By making a frame you’re being selective, then you edit the pictures you want published and you’re being selective again. You develop a point of view that you want to express. You try to go into a situation with an open mind, but then you form an opinion and you express it in your photographs.”
Mary Ellen Mark

76. “Limit your tools, focus on one thing, and just make it work… you become very inventive with the restrictions you give yourself.”
Anton Corbijn

77. “A lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they’ll be able to take better photographs. A better camera won’t do a thing for you if you don’t have anything in your head or in your heart.”
Arnold Newman

78. “My favorite words are possibilities, opportunities, and curiosity. If you are curious, you create opportunities, and if you open the doors, you create possibilities.”
Mario Testino

79. “You are responsible for every part of your image, even the parts you’re not interested in.”
Jay Maisel

80. “The most important piece of equipment after the camera is a good pair of shoes. A writer can work from a hotel room but a photographer has to be there, so he/she is in for a hell of a lot of hiking.”
David Hurn

81. “During the work, you have to be sure that you haven’t left any holes, that you’ve captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late”
Henry Cartier-Bresson

82. “No amount of toying with shades of print or with printing papers will transform a commonplace photograph into anything other than a commonplace photograph.”
Bill Brandt

83. “I’m so worried that I’m going to perfect [my] technique someday. I have to say it’s unfortunate how many of my pictures do depend upon some technical error.”
Sally Mann

Best quotes on how to improve your photography

84. “Those who want to be serious photographers, you're really going to have to edit your work. You're going to have to understand what you're doing. You're going to have to not just shoot, shoot, shoot. To stop and look at your work is the most important thing you can do”
Annie Leibovitz

85. "If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff."
Jim Richardson

86. "Never stop looking, no matter where you are, everywhere there are good photographs."
Art Wolfe

87. “You become technically proficient whether you want to or not, the more you take pictures.”
William Eggleston

88. “Look at lots of exhibitions and books, and don't get hung up on cameras and technical things. Photography is about images."
Fay Godwin

89. “Don’t pack up your camera until you’ve left the location.”
Joe McNally

90. “The more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.”
Robert Mapplethorpe

91. "One of the biggest mistakes photographers make is not having work that defines their interests and strengths. No one is going to hire you for what you say you like to do. You have to show them that you are capable of it first."
Ami Vitale

92. "Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn't look like somebody else's work."
William Klein

93. “Chance is always there. We all use it. The difference is, a poor photographer meets chance one out of a hundred times and a good photographer meets chance all the time.”
Brassaï

94. "A photographer is an acrobat treading the high wire of chance, trying to capture shooting stars."
Guy Le Querrec

95. “There is a brief moment when all there is in a man’s mind and soul and spirit is reflected through his eyes, his hands, his attitude. This is the moment to record.”
Yousuf Karsh

96. “You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.”
Galen Rowell

97. “Photography has no rules, it is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it is achieved.”
Bill Brandt

Best quotes on how to shoot people

Best quotes on how to shoot people

98. “A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.”
Annie Leibovitz

99. “My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.”
Helmut Newton

100. “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like; it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.”
Paul Caponigro

101. “A photographic close-up is perhaps the purest form of portraiture, creating a confrontation between the viewer and the subject that daily interaction makes impossible, or at least impolite.”
Martin Schoeller

102. “To me, the face – the eyes, the expression of the mouth – is the thing that reflects character. It is the only part of the body that permits us to see the inner person.”
Philippe Halsman

103. “We all have a sort of mask of expression. You say goodbye, you smile, you are scared. I try to take all these masks away and little by little subtract until you have something pure left. A kind of abandon, a kind of absence.”
Paolo Roversi

104. “I never think about a shoot before I do it. Because there's no formula for people. What I try to do is to strip everything away rather than go in with preconceived notions. If I do that, I might miss a gem or a jewel that the person is offering me."
Platon

105. “People are aware of the power of a camera, and this instinctively makes most subjects uncomfortable and stiff. But Bebeto taught me to linger in a place long enough, without photographing, so that people grew comfortable with me and the camera’s presence.”
Lynsey Addario

106. "A good portrait is the rapport that is established between two people, there has to be someone in front of the camera and someone behind it."
Jeanloup Sieff

107. "It doesn't matter if you're photographing a porter in a market in Marrakech or you're photographing the king of Morocco. You have the same sympathetic approach to everybody. You be nice to everybody, basically."
Albert Watson

108. "The majority of the people I've taken photographs of, I've had conversations with. 'What are your goals and aspirations?'. 'What are you about?' It's not just about me capturing the image; I want to know what you are about."
Jamel Shabazz

109. “A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.”
Edward Steichen

110. “The photographer, even in fashion and portraiture, has to have a standpoint. It's important to know what you stand for, no? Most people just take pictures but they stand for nothing. They follow trends and don't know why."
Peter Lindbergh

111. "I don’t need to know anything about the people I photograph, but it’s important that I recognise something about myself in them."
Rineke Dijkstra

Best quotes on finding your passion

112. “If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence.”
Richard Avedon

113. “The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.”
Scott Lorenzo

114. “Which of my photographs is my favourite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”
Imogen Cunningham

114. "There's no dividing line between adventure and photography."
Chris Noble

115. “When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt

116. “There’s a time when people say your work is revolutionary, but you have to keep being revolutionary. I can’t keep shooting pop stars all my life. You have to keep changing, keep pushing yourself, looking for the new, the unusual.”
Rankin

117. “One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you’d be stricken blind.”
Dorothy Lange

118. "Photography is something you learn to love very quickly. I know that many, many things are going to ask me to have their pictures taken and I will take them all."
Jacques-Henri Lartigue

119. “I think if I ever get satisfied, I’ll have to stop. It’s the frustration that drives you.” Eve Arnold

120. “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.”
Joan Miro

Read more:
The best coffee table books on photography

The best books on portrait photography

The best books on food photography

The best books on street photography

44 tips cards for photographers

With a career spanning over six decades in photojournalism, Sir Don McCullin has also become one of the great photographers of our time. 

He is best-known for capturing the international conflict zones of the late 20th century in The Sunday Times Magazine. But his new book The Landscape shows his more pastoral work which has been shot over the entirety of his  working life.

We listened in on an exclusive conversation between Martin Parr and Sir Don McCullin at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol, and discovered (in 10 quotes) what taking photos really means to the celebrated war photographer. 

1.McCullin on becoming a photographer

"I never really wanted to be a photographer. In a way, photography chose me."

2. McCullin on fame and fortune 

"I was never interested in financial wealth. All I wanted was to see my name under the photographs. That was my reward. I wanted to bring my family name to a place where people could see and respect it."

3. McCullin on motivation

"I am still getting blackmailed by photography, which is supposed to be something I love. I don't believe you do can anything well in life unless you are in this position."

4. McCullin on politics

"I didn't have an education and I thought photography would be really good because all you do is go out and take pictures, it's not political... and you know, almost everything I've touched has been political."

5. McCullin on family

Photography is something where every time you take a picture, you are recording the lives of people, your family and you are all part of the historical journey.

6. McCullin on print making

"In my darkroom when I see that print coming in the developer, it's as if I win the lottery."

7. McCullin on photographers

"Photographers are not total fools, they know what they are doing. We know what we are doing."

8. McCullin on mobile photography

"I've never been afraid of other people taking pictures. Everyone takes pictures on their phones now. Any joy I get out of it is because I don't have to look at them and secondly, they don't really improve very well when you try to enlarge them."

9. McCullin on cameras

"I've never had great interest in the camera equipment. I said once that I use a camera the way I would use a toothbrush. It's a necessity. I need a camera to work with, but I don't work with a camera, I work with my feelings and my eyes."

10. McCullin on growing old

"Photography gives you untold strength really, once something takes you over. It is amazing what you can do that you don't realise. I get still excited about photography and I am 83 years old. Isn't that wonderful really?"

The Landscape, published by Jonathon Cape, is out now.

You can read the full interview between Don McCullin and Martin Parr in the next issue of Digital Camera magazine, out 16 November.

Read more:

The 50 best photographers ever
100 best photography quotes from famous photographers

Nigerian migrants cry and embrace in a detention centre for refugees and migrants in Surman, Libya, in August 2016. Hundreds of women are here, in precarious conditions – the majority of them tried to get to Europe by taking smugglers' boats over the Mediterranean. Photographer Daniel Etter won third prize in the Contemporary Issues Singles category of the 2017 WPPh Contest with this image, The Libyan Migrant Trap. Taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM lens. © Daniel Etter 

Shrinking editorial budgets, increasing competition, and mistrust of the press are just some of the factors impacting the future of photojournalism. But the power of photography endures, and technology is allowing photographers more creative freedom than ever before. The world is hungry for visual storytelling, but will photojournalism survive? 

For famous photojournalist Sir Don McCullin, the landscape has changed irreconcilably since the days when dozens of printed pages were dedicated to his photo stories, leading him to declare: "Photojournalism is dying. Young people are being encouraged to go into photojournalism and there's no outlet for it – newspapers and magazines are much more interested in the wealthy, the glamorous and celebrities. They don't want suffering people in their newspapers. It doesn't make money for proprietors. Photojournalism hasn't lost its way but it's been conveniently pushed aside." 

We spoke to photojournalists and influencers working across the industry about the state of affairs today, and asked their opinions about the future of photojournalism in the digital age. 

Ilvy Njiokiktjien

"Assignments have changed, so people are not necessarily going to send you somewhere for months to work on one project. In general, if you want to work on long-term projects, you have to invest money yourself as well." 

"When Don McCullin's pictures were making it into the newspaper, his images would be the news. Now if I take a picture at Nelson Mandela's funeral, for instance, there are 300 other photographers there. There are so many images that you are never going to really shoot an iconic image. That's changed a lot. You're not the only one there – there are your colleagues, and there are people with phones. 

"I don't think a single image will ever lose its power. Single images, to me, are so strong – I can look at a single image and never forget it. But there are new ways of storytelling – with phones, with interactive online experiences and virtual reality – so it's important to see what matches the story." 

Jérôme Sessini 

"I think now we are freer than before. Firstly because of technology and, secondly, because the young photographers and myself, we don't care about the newspapers like people did before. We got free from the newspapers, so we are able to tell stories in the way we want to tell them. 

"One of the dangers is that now photographers are targets in conflict. And I feel that if I fear, I cannot do my job properly." 

"I totally believe in the stories – I'm always thinking, 'tell a story', not get one single picture. I don't try to give explanations with photography because it can't tell you everything. It can translate emotions – I believe more in emotions than in rationality. I don't want to tell them, 'this is like this', or 'like that'. I want them to first feel something, and then hopefully they will ask some questions. They will have to find the answers by themselves." 

Magnus Wennman

"When I started, press photography was a pretty old-school profession, but today it's completely different. It's not about the technique any more, it's about telling stories, and you have endless opportunities to tell stories today. If you're a photographer who used to just sit at the newspaper office and wait for jobs to fall into your lap, that's dying. But if you work with storytelling, I would say the future is very bright. 

"Because there are not that many staff jobs any more, photojournalism is more democratic – everybody can do it, not only people who work at newspapers." 

"Today you also have the possibility to choose if you want to do a visual story, a video, sound, or if you want to write the story. The new generation of photojournalists will work in a completely different way to the old photojournalists. They know the possibilities of working with social media and are not locked into only stills photography. As you see everywhere, visual storytelling is getting more and more important – if you're good at that, you're going to survive." 

Tom Jenkins

"Photojournalism is not breathing very well at the moment, I would have to say. Technology and the digital age have been like a seismic shock for photojournalism; everyone's got a phone; everyone's taking pictures; everyone sees themselves as a photographer now. This has made a massive difference to photojournalism.

"Because the markets are now absolutely flooded with images, prices have come right down, so the amount that you get paid for an image online now is tiny. 

Newspapers can access photographs from so many different areas now that it's really affected the way they employ and use photographers – there are fewer staff photographers, and the amount that photographers are getting paid is going down, especially in editorial photography and sports photography. 

"To make a worthwhile living out of it, you've got to think of different ways of financing yourself, so you might do some commercial work to enable you to go off to photograph the refugee crisis for a month or so." 

Daniel Etter

"Photojournalism has been declared dead for quite a while and, somehow, it's still around. It's still alive, and it's still kicking – maybe not quite as hard as in Don McCullin's days, but it's still important. It doesn't have the impact it once did, and it will never have that impact again. That's because it's been, if not replaced, then at least augmented by other technologies. I think photography will always play a role but if there are other, better ways of telling visual stories, I'm fine with that." 

"The biggest challenge we are facing is the struggle to be believed. Look at how really basic facts are in question nowadays. To navigate in that environment, and to struggle to be trusted and to be taken as a reliable source of information, is our biggest challenge. I haven't figured out a way to make news more trustworthy – the only thing we can do is good work. That means doing research, asking the right questions, and trying to represent events in a fair way." 

Photojournalists' kitbag - The key kit that the pros use to take their photographs 

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV 

This full-frame 30.4MP DSLR captures incredible detail, even in extreme contrast. Continuous 7fps shooting helps when chasing the perfect moment, while 4K video delivers high-definition footage. More details

Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM 

With its incredible f/1.2 maximum aperture and ultrasonic autofocus, this super-fast lens is a consummate low-light performer. More details

Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM 

This professional-quality standard zoom lens offers outstanding image sharpness and a robust L-series build. Its constant f/2.8 aperture enables you to take superb photos even in low light, and to control depth of field with ease. More details

To watch the video and read more about the future of photojournalism, visit here