Great war photographer 'contaminated by darkness'

By Mairi Mackay, CNN

Updated 1100 GMT (1900 HKT) October 2, 2015

A Turkish woman mourns her husband, who was killed by Greek forces in Cyprus in 1964. British photographer Don McCullin is renowned for his work in war and conflict. His retrospective book is now available through <a href="http://aperture.org/shop/don-mccullin-books" target="_blank">Aperture.</a>
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A Turkish woman mourns her husband, who was killed by Greek forces in Cyprus in 1964. British photographer Don McCullin is renowned for his work in war and conflict. His retrospective book is now available through Aperture.
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English soldiers charge Catholic youths in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1970.
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English soldiers charge Catholic youths in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1970.
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Christian gunmen in the foyer of a Holiday Inn battle Palestinians in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1976.
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Christian gunmen in the foyer of a Holiday Inn battle Palestinians in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1976.
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Suspected Lumumbist freedom fighters are tormented before execution in Stanleyville, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1964.
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Suspected Lumumbist freedom fighters are tormented before execution in Stanleyville, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1964.
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A Vietcong suspect is dragged from his bunker, in South Vietnam in 1965.
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A Vietcong suspect is dragged from his bunker, in South Vietnam in 1965.
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Early morning at the Kumbh Mela religious festival in Allahabad, India, in 1989.
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Early morning at the Kumbh Mela religious festival in Allahabad, India, in 1989.
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A shell-shocked U.S. soldier awaits transportation away from the front lines in South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
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A shell-shocked U.S. soldier awaits transportation away from the front lines in South Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
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A Cambodian woman clutches the body of her husband, who was killed in the battle for Phnom Penh in 1975.
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A Cambodian woman clutches the body of her husband, who was killed in the battle for Phnom Penh in 1975.
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American soldiers look into East Berlin at the time of the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
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American soldiers look into East Berlin at the time of the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
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The World War I battlefield of the Somme, photographed in 2000.
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The World War I battlefield of the Somme, photographed in 2000.
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Story highlights

  • For years, Don McCullin's photos connected people to wars and disasters abroad
  • He has been shot in battle, but the deeper scars are psychological, he says

(CNN)Don McCullin is famed for his photographs of conflict, but there was one war he couldn't get to.

It was 1982, and he had been at the top of his game as a photojournalist for the best part of two decades traversing the world, capturing the horror of the world's wars with an unflinching eye.