About this artwork
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 first of three photographs taken within moments of each other that were originally printed as a photo-sequence, providing a snapshot of the violence in Northern Ireland. McCullin has captured the decisive moments of this scene, exploiting the repetition of line in the horizontals of the windowsills set in the wall, the stripes on the soldiers’ shields and the plank of wood the young man holds above his head to order his composition. As the subsequent images show, here the repeated linear motif emphasises a moment of calm before an outburst of physical aggression.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Don McCullin (born 1935) English
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title:Northern Ireland, The Bogside, Londonderry
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date created:1971; printed 2013
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materials:Gelatin silver print on paper
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measurements:28.50 x 42.00 cm (framed: 50.50 x 64.00 cm)
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object type:
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credit line:ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Purchased with the assistance of the ARTIST ROOMS Fund, supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and Tate Members 2013
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accession number:AR01189
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gallery:
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subject:
Don McCullin
Don McCullin
Don McCullin is one of Britain's best known photojournalists. He made his name in the 1960s, covering most of the world's major conflicts for The Observer and then The Sunday Times. In Cyprus, Vietnam, Biafra and the Lebanon he provided direct and disturbing imagery of the effects of human cruelty...