Shell Shocked US Marine

About the Image

Don McCullin, much to his distaste, is recognised as probably the greatest war photographer who ever lived. McCullin, though, is much more than just a war photographer, and is recognised for his images of society around him, no matter how uncomfortable. Somewhat ironically, it is an image of war that has gone on to become not just McCullin’s best known photograph, but also one of history’s most famous.

His image of a shell shocked US Marine, in the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968, has become something of a byword for the horrors of war. More often recognised by its pseudonym “Thousand Yard Stare”, it was just one of many photographs McCullin took during the war, and has become something of a burden for him, being one of his most often reproduced images. He also believes the true meaning has been lost, and its corresponding impact –

“I think naturally it’s meant to be anti-war photograph but I don’t know how people perceive it because it has a slightly iconic value to it which could be slightly defeating part of the object of me taking it in the first place”

McCullin has also said that he took 5 shots of the soldier, and that every one is exactly the same as the rest, such was the level of standstill to which a man who had probably already fought in many battles, had been brought. Although nominally looking at the camera, the still unnamed Marine is, in fact, looking way beyond the lens.

Unusually, McCullin continued to shoot in black and white long after color film had become the norm for photojournalists, believing it better captured the realism of whatever it was he was photographing. Despite war being a literal explosion of color, the fact that Thousand Yard Stare is in black and white adds a depth of sadness and futility that a colour image would never be able to display.

The average age of American soldiers in Vietnam was just 19, and 15% continued to suffer from PTSD 10 years after they went home. And yet still we go to war.