A man of war finds inner peace
Don McCullin was a surprising choice to take portraits of 10 leading representatives of England's main faiths - but he leapt at the commission.
Surprising, because his reputation is based on gritty, fearless photojournalism, ever since his honest, often brutal, black-and-white reports from the Biafra famine and Nigeria's civil war educated Westerners locked in 1960s idealism about reality.
The current show was meticulously planned. McCullin chose not to shoot them among their congregations but inside their places of worship, forcing the focus onto faces and surroundings. The portraits are appropriately serious and dignified, reflecting the moral responsibilities these men and women carry in today's political debates.
Revd Baroness Kathleen Richardson of Calow sits in the austere study of Methodism's founder, John Wesley, while Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, sits on a throne beside portraits of his predecessors, stressing the link between church and state.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, kneeling in his mosque, wears an incongruously opulent silk robe. An air of pacifism surrounds the garlanded Hindu leader, Om Parkash Sharma, whose fingers curl in a yogic shape, and Dr Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, is accompanied by three white-robed musicians.
McCullin's use of calming, mostly natural, lighting lends the works coherence. They are darkly earnest but without the bleak beauty of the landscapes and flowers he photographed after retiring from war zones. They seem to reflect as much a peace within the photographer as the spiritual calm of his sitters. It's a small exhibition, but an important marker of these unpredictable times.
Until 4 May (020 7312 2463)
Don McCullin: Faith And Church
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE
