The largest ever UK exhibition of the life and work of photographer Don McCullin is opening tomorrow (6th Feb) at the Imperial War Museum North.

The exhibition contains more than 200 photographs, many of which are on public display for the first time.

Don McCullin with Delta Company, 1/5th US Marines during the Battle for Hue, Tet Offensive, Vietnam, February 1968.
Photograph © Nik Wheeler

The exhibition runs until 13th June and then moves to Bath and then London. Full exhibition details here: Shaped by War: Photographs by Don McCullin.

For more on Don McCullin, ‘John Tusa Interviews Don McCullin’ via AMERICANSUBURB X.

And the Today programme presents an audio slideshow.

Andy and I took a trip last week to see a couple of exhibitions.

First up was David Solomons’ ‘Happenstance’ - a retrospective of black and white ‘public’ photography by London-based David Solomons.

There are some forty images in the exhibition. Although most of the images on display were taken in London, there are a number of images from other locations. The quality of the imagery is high with few weak links. The images range from the quirky to the poignant, but all show Solomons’ eye for the decisive moment.

The exhibition is at Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London E2 6HG. It runs until 27th November.

There’s also a book.

Andy and I visited Photofair this weekend. Part of Photomonth, the East London Photography Festival, Photofair spreads over Spitalfields market and features an eclectic mix of photographers and galleries selling prints, publishers and photography service providers. Printwise there was something for everyone - from £10 prints from amateur enthusiasts to £10,000+ Burtynsky’s.

We met and talked to a large number of photographers, discovering some great work that hopefully we will be able to make available through the gallery in the not too distant future.

The day was rounded off with a visit to ‘A Place Like Home’ at Foundry and Obama’s People at Flowers Kingsland Road.

Some outtakes and links from the day below.

Miranda Gavin from Hotshoe magazine and Wendy Pye. Hotshoe is available in print bi-monthly for just £23pa, or £25pa for both print and full online access. There’s also Hotblog which Miranda edits.

Carolyn Lefley pictured with some of her work from ‘Belonging’ at the ‘A Place Like Home’ exhibition at Foundry - the show also included work by Ewa Bialek and Mark Denton.

Sam Bedford and Nova photographer Ben Roberts.

John Matthews - Tales of a Flaneur.

Photojournalist Alison Baskerville, alongside her striking portrait of Qamille Stema an Albanian ‘Virgjinesha’ (Sworn Virgin).

The Telegraph is featuring some images from ‘The Londoners Through a Lens’ exhibition at The Getty Images gallery.

The image below is particularly striking:

Apparently it shows a “wire cage which East Poplar borough council in London proposed to fix to the outside of their tenement windows, so that babies could benefit from fresh air and sunshine”.

It seems that attitudes towards child care and health and safety were so very different in 1934!