McCullin

Donald McCullin, CBE Hon FRPS (born 9 October 1935, Finsbury Park, London, England) is an internationally known British photojournalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished. (from wiki) 

A fantastic documentary from his start photographing the people of Finsbury Park, to Civil War in Cypress, The Congo, Vietnam, Lebanon. It was a different before (photo)journalists were officially  "embedded" and they took photos of what the saw and encountered, not just what they were shown. His accounts of what he saw are harrowing and he himself was scared he was becoming a "war junkie", seeing so much devastation that it started to not effect him. He talks of the people, soldiers, mercenaries he encountered. As well as the interview for the documentary, old snippets of interviews are used from news pieces to his appearance on Parkinson.

He speaks very openly and comes across as very honest and humble and you can clearly see how everything he has seen in his photographic life has effected him. When it finished, it didn't seem anywhere near the 90minute running time, always a good sign especially when it comes to documentaries. This is a must see for all, not just photographers, it really shows how much of the horrors of war just one man captured. 

He now lives in the English countryside and takes landscapes, a far cry from his days of putting his life on the line to show the world the horrors of war.

• Buy McCullin on DVD 
• Buy McCullin on Blu-Ray

Helmut Newton 10th Anniversary edition of Sumo

Who really needs an introduction to Helmut Newton?

Helmut Newton (31 October 1920 Berlin Germany - 23 January 2004 West Hollywood, California USA) was a German-Australian photographer famous for his fashion, nude and portrait photography at times even being known for his controversial work. His work has been featured in the likes of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Playboy.

In 2005, his world famous photograph of Henriette Allais titled "Big Nude III" was sold at an auction for the world record price of $311,000.

SUMO was originally released limitedly in 1999, breaking all records for size, weight and resell price, going for thousands of dollars. Copy number one of the book autographed by over 100 of the books photographed celebrities sold at auction in April 2000 for record breaking whopping $430,000.

Luckily for most of with not so deep pockets, in 2009 this was re-released, smaller and somewhat more affordable (somewhere around the €80 mark).

Although smaller this is still one of the biggest books I have, I had to extend the shelve height to fit it, and at 7KG make sure its a solid shelf! Even with the shelf extension, I have to take other books of the shelf, and tilt it to get it on/off the there.

In fact it even comes with its own plexiglass reading stand, packaged together in a nice box with handle and all! It also comes with a little booklet on the making of the book. With pages being 26.7 x 37.4 cm, and a mixture of square, landscape and portrait photographs, they are all nice a big with some colour but the majority in black & white.

Photographs in the book cover all aspects of his work - portraits, nude and fashion, bringing together 40 years of his life's work - I think 450 photographs in all. Alot of the images are fashion shots for the likes of Vogue, others are more well known people in the fashion industry and movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Catherine Devenue, Karl Lagerfeld, Dennis Hopper, Kate Moss, Winona Ryder, Naomi Campbell, Andy Warhol, Twiggy, Charlotte Rampling, Nicolas Cage, Daryl Hannah, Sigourney Weaver.

Who is this book for? Fashion, nude and portrait photographers. Taschen really out did themselves on this one, 7KG, 480 pages, 450 photographs, making of booklet, reading stand.

A great documentary on the making of the book can be found here.

Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 480
Width: 267 mm
Height: 374 mm
Thickness: 102 mm
Weight: 7,144 g
ISBN 13: 9783836517300
ISBN 10: 3836517302


Buy on Amazon

Retrospective 30

This is one of the bigger bags from the Retrospective® range. It wouldn't be the bag for a walk-about, but it is the perfect bag for most location shoots, weddings etc. with the amount of gear that you can fit in it. In fact this fits so much of my gear, it will replace two other bags I usually have to use for when I am out on location.

The first thing that stands out is how unlike a camera bag this looks, so if you do have it out and about its not going to be screaming out camera inside rob me!

Front Exterior

Back Exterior

It comes with two straps, hand strap (which can be removed if required) and shoulder strap. The shoulder strap is very nicely padded and one of the most comfortable I've come across. The shoulder strap pad also firmly stays in place. Another manufacturers bag I use I constantly have to fix the padding to my shoulder, driving me nuts.

The back of the bag contains a large single compartment, for notepad etc. My iPad in its case just about fits with zip closed. I like the pinestrone color too, a bit of a Magnum vibe about it! It is also available in black.

Once you open the flap you have plenty of choice for what goes where. It is as divided as follows:

• DSLR in middle
• Large lens either side
• all 3 of these compartments can be adjusted or removed as needed
• Either end of the bag has a flash pouch - this will give up real estate to a smaller lens
• Large back compartment
• Bits & pieces compartment

Inner Compartment

Inner Compartment with flaps open on front pockets

The front pockets are big, one side containing the weather flap, and still with room to fit at least another body. The empty pocket can easily take an 85, 50, lensbaby, and yet again still have plenty of room left for more bits.

Lens & Flash pouch

The inside back has a large pouch for notebook, iPad, or possibly a small laptop. In between the front pockets and main compartment is an other large area (again subdivided) for bits & pieces like extra memory cards, cleaning kit, cables, batteries, pens.

Inner bits & pieces compartment

On top of all the other compartments I nearly missed 2 more! On the outside of the bag either end again has a deep pocket, for the likes of phone and other similar smaller items.

I know I already said that its not a walk-about bag, but thats if you have it full of gear and gets weighty. As you can see from the photographs below from the exterior it doesn't look big, so if you pack lightly then it would be perfect for you.

Other nice little features include:

• business card compartment
• choice to have the front flap use the velcro contacts or not - i.e. making it silent
• key lanyard

Pros:

• Doesn't look like camera bag
• Plenty of pockets & compartments
• Nicely divided up
• Shoulder & hand straps
• Rain cover
• Fits a load of gear
• Strap padding stays in place!

Cons:

• Top flaps Velcro's shut, no zip
• Wont fit large laptop

This would be perfect for the likes of wedding photographers, all your gear together and not cramped

If you are looking for a walkabout bag, this is probably not it, it just takes too much gear. There are a number of Retrospective®'s of varying sizes in the range, so if this sounds too big for you, I'd definitely recommend checking out the smaller versions such as the Retrospective® 10.

To end this, I was really surprised by how much gear this fits, and I'll repeat myself again, this has loads of room!

Buy the bag on Amazon