LONDON: Award-winning British war photographer Don McCullin, who will be celebrated at next year's Photo London festival with a special exhibition, spoke Friday about the growing difficulties in covering conflicts.
The 80-year-old photographer, who has covered many of the biggest conflicts of the 20th century, took some of his most famous photos during the Vietnam conflict and is still at it -- travelling to Iraq just a month ago.
"You're obstructed by all kinds of lies and people who try to get money out of you. It's difficult," McCullin told AFP at a press preview of the international fair, which runs May 16-22 next year.
Asked if his job was harder now than when he started out in the 1960s, McCullin replied: "Absolutely!"
He also said the "biggest pleasure" he had experienced as a photographer was taking pictures of landscapes and homeless people far from war zones.
"By looking to the eyes of people you photograph, you get the truth, their depth," he said.
The exhibition of his work at London's Somerset House will include black and white shots of London in the 1960s, plus pictures of Lebanese refugee camps in 1982 and of the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland.
The photographer said he had experienced war "for the last 75 years" -- starting when he was a five-year-old during the Nazi bombing of London.
He spoke of his relationship with photography as a "wonderful marriage".
"I always thought photography was not so much an art form but a way to communicate and ppass on information," he said.
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