Note the comments about Don McCullin having already returned from Syria. I cannot fathom how I missed The Times's report on 13 December. Sorry to everyone, including Don.

The award-winning war photographer Don McCullin may be 77 but he refuses to retire. So he is now heading for Aleppo in Syria. Why, to use his phrase, is he about to "sleep in a derelict house and slosh around the Turkish border with poor old refugees?" He explained to The Observer:

"I just want to keep in touch with myself. I don't want to become complacently comfortable."

In an interview in today's Metro, he also says:

"Not many pensioners would take on such a challenge. I want to see what's going on there."

What may prove to be his last assignment comes at a time when a documentary film, called McCullin, is being shown in cinemas. It was made by his former assistant, Jacqui Morris, and her brother David.

In the film, McCullin's photographs of various conflicts - taken for the Sunday Times and The Observer some 30 years ago - are shown as he explains how and why he took them. After seeing a preview last June, Peter Preston wrote about an image, taken in Biafra, which made the audience wince:

"Too searing, too dreadful for comfort? Only if your own snug cocoon of ignorance is more important than feeling humanity's pain."

That view is certainly shared by the thoughtful, often mournful, McCullin who has spoken often about his own inner conflict: is it right to make a career from illustrating the misery of others?

As he tells Metro's Ann Lee: "I feel guilty because I've made a success out of my photographic life."

Another observation to Lee, about his disgust for celebrity contamination of the media, also merits attention:

"No one cares about real human beings. It's all about privileged celebrities who are able to look after themselves. We must think about people who don't have these fortunate opportunities".

See Peter Bradshaw's review of McCullin

Sources: Metro/The Observer