This photograph was taken while McCullin was on assignment for ‘The Sunday Times Magazine’ and was first published as part of a photo-story entitled ‘War on the Home Front’ in December 1971. It is the second of three photographs taken within moments of each other that were originally published as a photo-sequence, providing a snapshot of the violence in Northern Ireland. McCullin has captured the decisive moments of this scene, framing it within the straight horizontal and vertical lines of the building behind the protagonists that are echoed by the stripe within the soldiers’ rectangular shields. In contrast to the soldiers’ stasis and vertical alignment – either standing or crouching – the two young men have been captured in movement, their bodies extended at diagonal angles. The plank of wood that the suited young man has raised above his head, ready to strike the soldiers around the corner, emphasises the diagonal dynamic.