Documentary Photography

Don Macullen

Donald Macullen was born on the 9th October, 1935 and is an internationally known British photo journalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife. Macullen's period of National  Service in the RAF saw him posted to the Canal Zone during the 1956 Suez Crisis, where he worked as a photographer's assistant. He failed to pass his written theory paper and so he spent his service in the dark room.

Macullen received the World Press Photo Award in 1964 for his coverage of the war in Cyprus. In the same year he was awarded the Warsaw Gold Medal and in 1977 he was awarded and was made a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

I chose to research Don Macullen mainly for the realistic and striking scenes he portrays in his images. The photographs are striking and instantly capturing due to the fact they have happened in real life and mostly all of his photographs are in real time.



Above is one of Don Macullen's photographs, this represents what I mean by his images being simply stunning and so vivid. This photograph is of a homeless man lying by the embers of a fire in Spitalfields, London, 1969.

"Many years ago, I used to walk the streets around Brick Lane in the East End of London, looking for homeless people. I was doing a story about derelicts - the human beings who are pushed aside and ignored by our society. Among the pictures that I had taken I managed to take one of a man lying in the embers of a fire. You can see the truth in these photographs, I think. If you slept on the streets for a few weeks, I wouldn't need to manipulate a photograph of you to show it."

Vivienne Westwood



Vivienne Westwood (born Vivienne Isabel Swire) born on 8th April, 1941. She is an English fashion designer and business woman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

Westwood came to public notice when she made clothes for Malcolm McLaren's boutique in King's Road, which became famous as "SEX." It was their ability to to synthesize clothing and music that that shaped the '70's punk scene, dominated by McLaren's band, the Sex Pistols. She went on to open five shops, selling an increasingly varied range of merchandise.

I chose to research Vivienne Westwood because she is one of my idols and also played a main part in me deciding what to produce for my final piece. One of the clothing items created by Vivienne Westwood was the well known "Destroy" t-shirt which was worn by McLaren's band the Sex Pistols, this particular design I had tried to re invent in my final images by making cuts in to the t-shirt, creating the all important "Destroy" logo and covering the t-shirt with safety pins, an item widely used in the punk scene.



Above in a photograph of Vivienne Westwood in 1977 wearing one of her infamous punk creations - the Destroy t-shirt. Made from Muslim cloth and printed in lurid color, the confrontational silk-screened art combined images of an upside down crucifix, a swastika, and a small profile picture of the Queen of England. While misinterpreted by many, the graphic was meant as an angry denunciation of government, religion and fascism.

Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine (born Lewis Wickes Hine) was born on the 26th September, 1874 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was an American sociologist and photographer. He used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were key for influencing the change of child labor laws in the United States.

In early life, after his fathers death in a tragic car accident, he began working and saved his money for a college education. He studied sociology at the University of Chicago, Columbia University and New York University. He became a teacher in New York City at the Ethical Culture School, where he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational medium. The last years of his life were filled with professional struggles due to loss of government and corporate patronage. Very few people were interested in his work, past or present, and Hine lost his house and applied for welfare. He died at age 66 on November 3rd, 1940.



Above is a photograph which was taken by Lewis Hine in 1908 in Carolina Cotton Mill of a girl worker. This photograph to me represents of how what life used to be like back in those times and how young they would have to work, life today is not even close to what it was like to live for those people back then. Lewis Hine's photographs are visually stunning, he photographs in real time and captures the moment perfectly through his camera.