McCullin has often taken more of an interest in the victims of conflict than the perpetrators. This is evident in his coverage of the Biafran war, where in three years of war more than one million people died. Food supplies were restricted to the Biafran region causing widespread famine and disease. On assignment for The Sunday Times Magazine, McCullin photographed starving, war orphaned children, and this photograph is a harrowing portrait of a starving mother attempting to breastfeed her child with shriveled breasts. She is dignified, looking the viewer straight in the eye and the composition not only gives the subject a voice but also intends to give the viewer a conscious obligation, igniting action.