Photographs
Photographs
Photographs from The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Sold to Benefit Acquisition Funds
Shell-shocked solider awaiting transportation away from the front line, Hue, Vietnam
Lot Closed
April 10, 03:15 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Photographs from The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Sold to Benefit Acquisition Funds
Don McCullin
b. 1935
Shell-shocked solider awaiting transportation away from the front line, Hue, Vietnam
gelatin silver print, credit and annotations in pencil and ink, Magnum Photos, Inc. distribution/copyright stamps, printed and typed labels, with title and date, on the reverse
image: 9½ by 6⅜ in. (24.1 by 16.2 cm.)
Executed in 1968.
Collection of Photographer Marilyn Bridges
Acquired from the above in 2007 by the present owner
Daniel Wolf and Mike Weaver, The Art of Photography, 1839-1989 (London: The Royal Academy of Arts, 1989), pl. 425
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has an extensive collection of war photographs. Its 2012-13 exhibition WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath included nearly 500 photographs, books, magazines, albums, and ephemera by more than 280 photographers, including Sir Don McCullin CBE.
McCullin's most well-remembered photographs are from the battlefields of the Vietnam War. Shell-shocked soldier is the culmination of McCullin’s storytelling prowess and impactful documentary style. The soldier depicted was a fighter in the 5th marine battalion, which had endured the brunt of the violence in Hue, Vietnam. Of the photograph offered here, McCullin said, it is “a kind of silent protest about the futility of war. You can see this man’s life has possibly been damaged forever.”
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