Book 2

McCullin, D (1971) The destruction business, London: Open Gate Books

This book is a compilation of many different photographic projects by McCullin. 

The thing that really struck me with this book straight away was the image on the front page introducing his images taken in Africa. 

The images that are included in this section are a mixture of children, adults, injured soldiers and groups of people. Yet the image that is the first we see, with the word 'Africa' above it is that of a very manourished, skeletal, naked child. Why ?

Is it because at the time the book was published, 1971, these were the images that people were beginning to get accustomed to seeing, or was it that we were not yet accustomed so it was a shock?

This is something that I want to be very careful with in my own book. Word and image association is such a massive thing to the viewer, subliminal messages can be found between text and image, so seeing this has made me aware that I need to consider these things and be aware of it in my own book.

The image and text placement throughout this photo book is interesting. It is different on each page you turn to, which I think keeps interest in the book. I don't think that the text is ever made to look more important than the image, which I like. The image is always the bigger and so it is where you eye is drawn, and then you look to the text to give you a snippet of information about the photograph.

 I feel that the text is what McCullin would say if he were taking you through the book himself. It is like thoughts that would pop into his mind on seeing the image and feel it appropriate to share.
It is similar to how you would take a friend or loved one through a photo album in the comfort of your home.

I also like that each photo is black and white. I think that it is also to do with the distress of the book, due to age I expect, but it has a real emotional feel to it. The images are slightly grainy which means you have to really look at them and it invites you to study them further. It makes it feel real.


The bio is in the front of the book, and the text is about McCullin. I think this is because it is a mixture of projects in the book, sort of an overview of his works at that time. Yet, each sub category does not have any textual information to go with it. The viewer is left to make their own stories/meaning/view of each image.