Hamiltons presents the third of our exclusive online exhibitions: Don McCullin's England. Comprising a selection of McCullin's iconic photographs of people and places in England, these images capture his candid and uncompromising view of his homeland.
Born in Finsbury Park, it was a photograph of a gang - The Guvnors - from his neighbourhood that, after being published in The Observer in 1959, marked the beginning of a career in which he would become one of the preeminent photojournalists of our time.
McCullin's England photographs reveal the social gulf where the separation of rich and poor is as distinct as ever. Travelling the world for The Sunday Times as an overseas correspondent during the sixties and seventies, he returned with photographic records of man-made catastrophes from war-zones across the globe. His sympathy lies with the victim and it is with the same honesty seen in his war photographs that McCullin portrays his view of the divisions in England's society. This disillusionment is balanced with empathy and at times, wit and irony, where ludicrousness is as rife as misfortune. In contrast to the human tragedy he has witnessed and recorded, his capture of the beauty of landscape reveals his deep and unwavering love for England, something that he has taken great pleasure in photographing particularly in recent years. "When my time's up on this Earth I want to leave a legacy behind of beautiful landscape pictures of Somerset."
Don McCullin, Out of Work Men Searching for Coal dust to Sell, West Hartlepool, 1963 © Don McCullin
