The Artist
There are great wildlife photographers and there are specialists in portraits of people. And then there is Steve McCurry. He has been one of the most famous contemporary photographers for more than 40 years. Born in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he studied film at Pennsylvania State University before working for a local newspaper. After a few years as a freelancer, McCurry made his first of many trips to India. With little more than a bag of clothes and another one with films, he toured the subcontinent and explored the country with his camera. After several months he crossed the border into Pakistan. There he met refugees from Afghanistan who smuggled him across the border into their country, just as the Russian invasion closed the country to all Western journalists. He reappeared in local clothing, with a full beard and weathered facial features after spending weeks with the mujahideen. McCurry brought the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan to the world and gave the subject a human face on every cover.
Since then, McCurry has produced breathtaking images on all seven continents and in countless countries. His work spans conflicts, disappearing cultures, old traditions and contemporary culture alike – and yet always preserves the human element that made his famous image of the Afghan girl such a powerful image.
As Steve likes to say, “I’m interested in people, how different they are, but also how the same they are. We dress differently, speak different languages and maybe have a different religion. Basically we are one human race, one entity. This difference really fascinates me. ”
McCurry seeks the unobserved moment and tries to empathize with this person, or in a broader sense, to relate their life to the human experience as a whole. He condenses his impressions, the colors, the landscape and also the fate of those portrayed in one picture.
An honor
McCurry has won some of the most prestigious awards in the industry. The French Minister of Culture has named McCurry a Knight of the Order of the Arts and Literature and recently the Royal Photographic Society in London awarded McCurry the Centenary Medal for his life’s work.
