I-Shaped By War ingumbukiso omkhulu kunayo yonke eyake yaba khona empilweni nomsebenzi ka-Don McCullin, ngokungangabazeki ongomunye wezintatheli zezithombe ezinkulu kakhulu zenkathi yangemva kwempi.
Wazalelwa ENorth London in 1935, McCullin’s first memories were of The Blitz and evacuation. For his National Service in the mid-50s he travelled to Suez, Kenya futhi Cyprus, working as a Photographic Assistant. Soon after his return home, his photographs of a local gang were snapped up by The Observer and assignments to Berlin and the civil war in Cyprus kulandelwe.
While McCullin would go on to work in war-torn hotspots such as eBiafra, e-Northern Ireland, Cambodia futhi Lebanon, Ikona Vietnam that he will always be associated with. By now working for the Sunday Times Magazine, McCullin made his first trip there in 1965, and would return on fourteen more assignments. Along with daredevils like Tim Page and Larry Burrows, McCullin, working almost exclusively in black and white, took many of the photos that have come to define the conflict.
The exhibition’s centrepiece is his work from the thirteen days he spent with US marines in the ancient city of Hue in 1968 during the surprise Tet Offensive. These photographs are “the most powerful film I’ve ever taken in my life”, says McCullin in the exhibition’s 30-minute film. He goes on to explain how the “total nightmare madness” of the often hand-to-hand fighting left him “slightly insane.” The photographs reflect this grim reality – from his famous portrait of a shell-shocked American soldier to his shot of a wounded Marine being helped by two colleagues, which reminded McCullin of Jesus Christ being taken down from the cross.
Throughout the exhibition there is an awkward contradiction at play. On the one hand McCullin says he wants “to become the voices of the people in these pictures”. His work certainly displays a clear interest in the civilian victims of warfare. This is a noble mission of course, but a display of the American military kit McCullin wore in Vietnam hints at a more problematic reality – that of his defacto embedding with US forces. In terms of his personal safety this is understandable and perhaps the only way he could access the battlefield. However, it also means most of his photos from Vietnam are of – and taken from the perspective of – US soldiers. The viewer’s sympathy, concern and attention is therefore more likely to rest with the American side, rather than with the Vietnamese resisting them. This is especially problematic when one understands the overall mortality count for the war: 58,000 American military deaths compared to between two and four million Vietnamese, military and civilian, dead.
Empilweni yakamuva, udumo lukaMcCullin lwaqala ukuphazamisa ikhono lakhe lokusondela esenzweni, imizamo yakhe yokubhala iMpi Yase-Afghan kanye neMpi YaseFalklands igcine ingaphumeleli. Ngemva kokushiya iphephabhuku i-Sunday Times nokulwa nokudangala, ukukhathala kwempi nempilo yomuntu siqu eneziyaluyalu, ngeminyaka yawo-90s waphendukela ekuthwebuleni izithombe zezwe nezithombe. “Izindawo zami seziphenduke uhlobo lokuzindla. Empeleni sebelaphe obuningi ubuhlungu bami, icala lami, ezintweni engizibonile,” usho kanje embhalweni ohambisana nalesi sihloko.
Ekuxoxeni indaba yokuphila okungavamile okunjalo okuhileleke ngokuseduze ezingxabanweni eziningi zasekupheleni kwekhulu lamashumi amabili, i-Shaped By War izibonakalisa iwumbukiso othakazelisayo nobalulekile. Izivakashi zayo yonke imibandela yezombangazwe cishe zizohamba nenani elikhulu lenhlonipho kuMcCullin nabanye abathwebuli bezithombe zempi ababeka ukuphila kwabo engozini ukuze baqophe izinto ezisabekayo zempi yesimanje. Umakadebona weMpi Yezwe Yokuqala osekhulile uHarry Patch, owathwebula uMcCullin ngaphambi nje kokuba ashone, wayeneyakhe, enolwazi oluningi ngale ndaba: “Impi ingukubulala okuhleliwe, akukho okunye”.
Shaped By War runs until 15 April 2012. Admission is £7 for adults, £6 for concessions. www.iwm.org.uk.
*U-Ian Sinclair ungumbhali ozimele ozinze ku London, UK. [i-imeyili ivikelwe] futhi http://twitter.com/#!/IanJSinclair
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