Handsome and collectible, the books are produced to the highest standards. Each volume contains some sixty reproductions printed in superb duotone, together with a critical introduction and a full bibliography. War photography is not a profession; it is a way of getting at the truth of the human condition, as close as possible to man, to his hopes and fears, his ignorance and his beliefs. This closeness may be because showing the death of others means risking one's own life. Don McCullin always understood that war is hell. His images from Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and other scenes of conflict have the beauty of classical tragedies: they speak of horror and absurdity.