He visited the most dangerous and beautiful places on the planet to collect vivid impressions in his photo collection. His style is unchanged, and in the sight of his camera is the whole world without borders: India, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Pakistan, Tibet, Burma, Yugoslavia, Cambodia, the Philippines, Africa. His “Afghan Girl” is recognizable at first sight. Other photographs are undeservedly little-known, but just as beautiful, thanks to their sincerity, unstaged nature and inner content.
His name is Steve McCurry ( Steve McCurry) . It captures moments of happiness, ecstasy and quiet joy. Conveys the sorrows of a difficult life and the stamp of silent stoicism. Finds awe " easy breathing", the beating of wild love of life, the reflection of love in the gaze and the web of fine wrinkles. Behind each is the dramatic, original fate of a person and the fantastic world around. Irrationality, passions, and the experience of inner life are revealed against the backdrop of harsh realities and familiar everyday situations.
This unknown young amateur photographer from a small local newspaper became a cult photographer overnight. One moment he is an ex-student with a prestigious but impractical theater education, and suddenly his photographs end up in major magazines and end up on the cover of National Geographic. He wins the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Foreign Photographer. He becomes a “trend setter” in the world of photography, he has a crowd of fans, students and epigones. Articles are written about him, and his works are published among the hundred best photographs. How and why did this happen?
The turning point came after four years of measured, peaceful and unremarkable life. At 28, Steve McCurry dropped everything and set off on his first solo trip. His modest savings went towards 300 rolls of film, which he sewed into clothes and secretly smuggled literally on himself. He headed to India. Without money, knowledge of language and culture, this became a real test for him. After a comfortable life in civilized America, temporary shelters and constant risks to health and life awaited him.
Life amidst war
Then the route leads across the Afghan-Pakistani border, straight to the hot spot - where the Afghan war flared up. McCurry goes there, not knowing the way, at his own risk, to report. He crosses the border illegally and spends two weeks in the war zone. People die here every day, and the photographer himself is on the verge of death. Steve is worried not so much for himself as for the possible loss or confiscation of the footage. Only by miracle does he reach Pakistan alive and with a ready-made photo report.
After this, Steve McCurry was invited to work at National Geographic. He continues to travel around the East and film life and death in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Cambodia, Beirut, Burma, the Philippines and Tibet, as well as in the Balkan countries. Steve makes photographic reports of international conflicts: the Iran-Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War, the Gulf War and Afghanistan. He knows firsthand the sound of machine gun fire, exploding bombs and mortar shells. The photographer survived a plane crash, captivity, torture, beatings, but this did not stop him.
The history of great photography: the best creation of Steve McCurry
Imagine a Pashtun refugee camp near the Soviet border. The photographer comes to the local primary school and gets a rare opportunity to capture the faces of Afghan girls (usually hidden under burqas). Among the crowd of children is a girl named Sharbat Gula, which means “flower sherbet.” She looks mature (children here grow up early), although she is not even fourteen.
No wonder: her parents were killed in the bombing and her house was destroyed. For two weeks she crossed a snowy pass without food or warm clothing. However, from the sorrows she experienced, she seemed to have only become more beautiful and stronger. Her wild, piercing sea green eyes are directed directly into the lens, they fascinate and attract attention. The look brought together pain, determination and dignity.
"Afghan girl" - the most famous photograph in history National magazine Geographic. She has become a symbol of the Afghan conflict and the refugee problem around the world.
Crossing borders: a photo trip around the world
McCurry gives us the opportunity to be transported to those distant, original, fascinating places that he himself visited. The landscapes and people are so “alive”, as if it were a broadcast channel from the scene. Looking at them, we mentally cross boundaries and forget about the time and space that separates us. The photographer does the impossible - he conveys the state and atmosphere. How? No one knows.
McCurry makes a collection of portraits of people from countries with diametrically opposed cultural and religious traditions.
It reveals entire cultural layers of human civilization - the East in all its manifestations: dramatic, funny, beautiful, filled with emotions. Celebration and the birth of life coexist with war and death. Luxurious palaces - with poverty and simple everyday life. Undisturbed mountain peaks with anthill cities. People eat, fish, play, work and pray. And the more exotic the setting and the brighter the cultural differences, the clearer it is that they are actually very similar.
You can simply admire his photographs, or you can try to look deeper and see the human stories behind them. The personal is revealed against the backdrop of the global - and it is not clear what is more important and significant. An empathetic observer is aware of the infinite diversity of the world around him and his involvement in it.
Steve McCurry is one of the most talented photographers. His portrait of a 12-year-old Afghan girl was named the most recognizable in the history of National Geographic magazine. His works tell stories, and therefore they can be found on the pages of the largest publications.Steve McCurry has taken over a million photographs over 35 years.
Biography
The most important thing is to be extremely attentive to the person, serious and consistent in your intentions, then the photo will be the most sincere. I really like watching people. It seems to me that a person's face can sometimes tell a lot. Each of my photographs is not just an episode from life, it is its quintessence, its whole story.
Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry (Steve McCurry) was born in 1950 in Philadelphia. He became interested in photography while studying at the University of Pennsylvania in the cinematography department, and the student newspaper The Daily Collegian eagerly published photographs of the young amateur photographer. In 1974, he graduated with honors from the university, received a diploma in Theater Arts and... got a job as a photographer for a local newspaper. A more than prestigious education did little to help Steve in the profession of photojournalist; he worked his way to the top of his craft through trial and error, trying to learn as much as possible from his predecessors. “Creativity played a big role in my development as a photographer,” he recalled, “In addition, I carefully studied the books of such masters as Dorothea Lang and Walker Evans.”
The young man could not sit still: his quiet, eventless everyday life home country in the mid-1970s seemed boring and banal to him - and for the most part they were. In 1978, having saved some money, Steve bought 300 rolls of film and went to India. This was a real test: he had no financial support, spent the night in the cheapest hotels, was malnourished, and often risked not only his health, but also his life.
In 1979, still in the status of a “free artist” or, in other words, a private citizen, he went to Afghanistan with the aim of reporting on the clash between rebel groups and government troops. “I was very worried: after all, I had to illegally cross the border and end up in a combat zone,” he said, “But I pulled myself together and went. I spent two weeks on the front line. And when the time came to return, I had to be nervous again - I was afraid that my films would be confiscated at the border.” At great risk, he sewed films into his turban, socks and even underwear, and returned to Pakistan. Several photographs appeared on the pages " The New York Times" but special attention they did not attract attention - the events in the small Asian country were of little interest to anyone at that time.
A few months after the events described, the Soviet-Afghan war began and the situation changed radically: the fate of yesterday’s unwanted people interested not only political figures, but also the “average American housewife.” And then it turned out that not one of the Western agencies had current photographs from Afghanistan. “Suddenly, the leading magazines around the world - Paris Match, Stern, Time, Newsweek and LIFE - began publishing my photographs,” McCurry recalled, “I was soon hired by Time; after working there for a few months, I moved to National Geographic.”
Since then, he has visited Afghanistan several times, often risking his life: “... My trace was lost in 1980 and 1988 in Afghanistan. They thought I was dead,” he said in an interview. In 1992, he once again came to Kabul, which at that time was under the rule of the Taliban. At two o'clock in the morning, armed people burst into the hotel where he was staying (by the way, he was the only guest). Hearing a knock McCurry opened the door and locked himself in the bathroom. Uninvited guests searched the room and stole all valuables. “Fortunately, the equipment, money and documents were not found, I hid them in a safe place,” the photographer shared his joy.
But to this we must add problems with transporting equipment and materials across the border, the reluctance of many photographed to serve as models for foreigners, the natural embitterment of people in conflict zones, the desire of those in power to “not wash dirty linen in public,” and so on and so forth. But who knows what other problems may arise in an unfamiliar country for a person who, in the apt expression of Elliott Erwitt, is “armed only with hopes and ambitions”? In the immediate vicinity of him there were machine gun bursts, bombs fell, mortar shells exploded, he got into a plane crash, they beat him, they tried to drown him, he was taken hostage... There are too many situations in which Steve McCurry was between life and death to mention them to tell in a short article, he is fully worthy of becoming the hero of an adventure novel - it remains up to the writer.
In an interview, McCurry said he didn't feel like a celebrity because "people usually recognize a photograph, not the author." However, since the mid-1980s he was already well known, he no longer had to go hungry and sleep in the slums. Some of his works - especially the portrait of Sharbat Gula, which will be discussed below - have become world-famous photo icons. In 1986, he became a candidate member of the famous photo agency Magnum Photos, and in 1991 - its full member. And he was not at all lost among the brilliant line of photographers and journalists of the agency! He received many prestigious awards both in his homeland and far beyond its borders, and was recognized several times as “Best Photojournalist of the Year” by various magazines and associations. Among other things, he received the highest award for a war photographer - the Robert Capa Gold Medal for "the best photographic report from abroad, requiring exceptional courage and initiative."
Steve McCurry published his first book, The Imperial Way, in 1985. It was followed by Monsoon (1988), Portraits (1999), South Southeast (2000), and Sanctuary (2002). , “The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage” (2003), “Steve McCurry” (2005), “Looking East” (2006) , “In the Shadow of Mountains” (2007). The latest photo album, “The Unguarded Moment,” was released in 2009.
Steve McCurry has the amazing ability to always (at least, much more often than follows from the theory of probability) be in the right place at the right time. He is surprisingly lucky - although it should be remembered that luck for a photojournalist usually comes from the misfortunes of other people or even entire nations. We have already seen how the Soviet attack on Afghanistan affected his career. But the “main success” awaited the photojournalist at home.
Steve McCurry spent the entire month of August 2001 in Asia and returned to New York only on September 10th. The next day he woke up very early and felt groggy - jet lag was taking its toll. Later, his assistant’s mother called him: “Look out the window,” she shouted into the phone, “the World Trade Center is burning.” “At first I didn’t believe my eyes,” the photographer recalled, “But in the next moment I grabbed my bag with the equipment and rushed to the roof of the house.” After shooting several films, he realized that he needed to try to get closer. He had no opportunity to obtain permission to film, so he had to spend most of his time hiding from government officials - fortunately, he had plenty of experience in illegal work. McCurry reached Ground Zero around noon and filmed until he ran out of film. But even then I couldn’t bring myself to leave, I looked around, probably “took pictures without a camera,” trying to remember everything that was happening around me. In the end, fatigue took its toll and Steve McCurry went home, beginning to realize that this was, in all likelihood, the most important day of his life.
I was so busy telling the story of McCurry's adventures as a journalist that I said almost nothing about his photography habits.
First, let's look into his bag: 3-4 professional Nikon film cameras and 6-7 fast lenses(fixes) with different focal lengths. He carries a tripod and a flash with him, but does not use them often. He tries to have as much spare film as possible and uses it sparingly - there were days when the number of videos shot was measured in dozens. The photographer considers the most necessary parts of his equipment to be a Swiss Army knife and a set of Leatherman tools, which have helped him out more than once in difficult situations.
Steve McCurry shoots exclusively on color film: “This decision was largely dictated by the market,” he admits. But it’s not just that, because “color is another dimension.” McCurry thinks it's good color photography, should remain good even in black and white: “I don’t want my photos to stick to just the light.” Does he succeed? I invite the reader to independently experiment with converting his photographs into black and white format, although it seems to me that many of them, together with color, lose some of their attractiveness. This fully applies to McCurry’s most famous photograph, “Afghan Girl,” a story about which I saved for last.
Steve McCurry has many wonderful photographs and is rightfully considered one of the best photojournalists of our time. Everything is in order with his artistic taste; some of his works can serve (and serve) as decoration for the most discerning art museum. However, many photography enthusiasts know him as the author of one single photograph.
There is nothing unusual in this: a photographer is often remembered by one photograph, like an actor by one role, a writer by one book, an artist by one painting. Few people know that Malevich’s brush produced anything other than “Black Square,” and Conan Doyle came up with more than just Sherlock Holmes. There are more curious cases: an ardent opponent death penalty Dr. Guillotin is remembered as the man who gave his name to the decapitation machine. And who cares now that he proposed it as an alternative to more cruel methods of execution (burning at the stake, hanging, quartering).
But let's get back to photography. At the end of 1984, Steve McCurry ended up in the Nazir Bagh Afghan refugee camp near Peshawar (Pakistan). He was allowed to take photographs at school, including in the girls' class. Later he recalled that he noticed her immediately, but, sensing her embarrassment and confusion, he approached her last. The girl allowed herself to be photographed, which he did not fail to take advantage of. It never occurred to him to write down or even ask her name; for him she was one of thousands of children of the war: “I didn’t think that this photograph would be any different from many other photographs that I took that day,” the photographer admitted later.
But she was different. In June 1985, the photograph appeared on the cover of National Geographic and immediately became a symbol of the Afghan people's struggle for independence. In the 20-odd years since its first publication, “Afghan Girl” has become one of the most recognizable photographic images of the era. The photograph was replicated by other magazines, appeared on postcards and posters, on the backs of peace activists in the form of a tattoo, and so on and so forth. She was included in the hundred best photos according to the National Geographical Society USA, in the late 1990s she was featured on the cover of a collection of selected photographs by National Geographic. In 2005, the cover of "Afghan Girl" was named one of the top ten "Best Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years."
“I think that many people like the photograph of the Afghan girl due to the combination of several components,” its creator shared his understanding of the reason for the popularity of the photograph, “Firstly, she is very beautiful. Secondly, her gaze is captivating, it simultaneously feels excitement and determination, steadfastness, and dignity shines through her entire appearance. She is poor, but in this poverty there is a feeling of genuine nobility. Dress her in Western fashion and she will look like most members of our society."
All this is true, of course, but there are not so few girls who fit this description, including in other photographs Steve McCurry. Meanwhile, the impact of "Afghan Girl" on the viewer is unique; It seems to me that it cannot be explained in words; the best that can be done here is to refer to the mysterious “power of art.”
For a long time, the fate of the heroine of the photo remained unknown. The photographer himself returned to Afghanistan about twenty times, but if he tried to find her, he was unsuccessful. Finally, in January 2002, seventeen years after the famous photograph was first published, the administration of National Geographic organized an expedition to find the “girl with green eyes.” They showed the photo to locals in the area of the still active Nazir Bagh refugee camp, where McCurry took the famous photo. Someone recognized the girl in the photo, but hope in the photographer’s heart gave way to disappointment after meeting the supposed “model.” But, in the end, luck smiled on them - one of the local residents recognized her and promised to bring her to the camp. It took three days - she lived in the mountains near the Tora Bora caves, which for a long time served as a shelter for terrorist groups led by Osama bin Laden. Apparently McCurry didn’t have much hope for luck, but when the young woman entered the room, one glance was enough for him to understand: it was her.
The young woman's name was Sharbat Gula (translated from Afghan - “Flower Nectar”). At the time of the second meeting with McCurry, she was between 28 and 31 years old, in any case, no one could determine her age more precisely - not even herself. At the very beginning of the war, her parents died under Soviet bombs, and for several weeks she, as part of a small group of refugees, made her way to Pakistan - through snow-covered mountains, without warm clothes, hungry, hiding in caves from air raids. In 1984, Sharbat ended up in the Nazir Bagh camp, where McCurry met her. Simple arithmetic shows that she was between 11 and 14 years old, although she looks older. The woman remembers this day well: then she was photographed for the first time in her life. Soon after, she married and gave birth to four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. They do not live richly - Sharbat's husband works in a bakery, earning less than one dollar a day! Has she ever been happy? This seems very doubtful, her life was very difficult.
It seems quite reasonable to assume that the main, if not the only reason why they agreed to meet the photographer and his companions was the hope of somehow improving their well-being and educating their children. Their hopes were at least partially justified: “When we started the search there was no talk about money for herself or her family,” the photographer said, “However, we provided her husband and children with the necessary medical care. I bought a sewing machine at her request because she wanted her daughter to learn a craft. But there was nothing like payment for photographs. However, I think we made it clear to her that we were going to take certain steps that would change her life for the better.” Of course, a sewing machine doesn't compare to National Geographic's income from selling the Afghan Girl image, but for a family living on a dollar a day, that's a fortune.
Sharbat Gula did not express any particular admiration for the famous photograph; moreover, it was absolutely incomprehensible to her what these strangers could find in it. She was very upset by the fact that someone saw her in a shawl with holes in it. “She still remembers the day when she accidentally burned a hole above the stove,” said a representative of the magazine.
During their second meeting, the photographer was allowed to take several more photographs of Sharbat, which were published in National Geographic and then circulated in many publications around the world. In one of the photographs, with her face open, she tried to take the same pose as seventeen years ago, in the other - this time in a burqa - she holds her famous photograph. It must be assumed that the photo shoot was not easy for her, because she had to pose in front of a stranger, show him her face, talk to him... Of course, all this in the presence of her husband and brother, for whom this event was also not an easy test.
Finally, I note that the question of a possible mistake has been raised several times in the press: they say that the women in the photographs have very different upper lips, noses, facial proportions, and eye sizes. However, the photographer is confident that he was not mistaken: “I don’t need any scientific evidence - I already see that this is the same girl I photographed in 1984,” he stated, “To be sure, look carefully at her a scar on the bridge of her nose, moles that don’t change with age, and her own memories of what happened that morning in 1984 must be taken into account.”
And one more thing: no need to idealize Steve McCurry As much as he sympathizes with the people of Asia, he is first and foremost an American and supports his government's policies: “Not 100 percent, but basically I agree,” he answers when asked about his agreement with US policy in Afghanistan, “War - this is not a way to solve the problem. But I believe that we must do our best and destroy these people(Emphasis added - A.V.). Of course, care must be taken to ensure that civilians are not harmed. ... I want to go to Afghanistan again, but after the Taliban.”
It would be appropriate to note here that Sharbat Gula belongs to the warlike Afghan tribe of Pashtuns, from whom the backbone of the Taliban movement was formed at one time. Both she and her family are sure: the Taliban are much better than the Russians or Americans, because “there was more order under them, and there were no bombings.”
Which one is right: a world-famous photographer or an illiterate Afghan woman, even with beautiful green eyes? Maybe you (like me) don’t have a definite answer to this question, but it’s still great that there are photographs that make you think about it.
About different destinies. IN modern world there is poverty, that's a fact. But I am also sure that people live with different understandings of what wealth and poverty are. Life has put many in difficult conditions, but thanks to this, they have developed interesting human stories that they want to tell. The topic of poverty should not be exploited. But we also cannot pretend that it does not exist.
About an Afghan girl. My feelings for this image and for the story I shot back in 1984 are as fresh as ever. Nothing changed! I couldn’t let go of the thought of how the girl’s fate turned out. And a few years later, my colleagues and I found her and helped as much as we could. Now she continues to live familiar way of life in Afghanistan. We still keep in touch.
ABOUT female beauty. I don’t think that ideas about female beauty have changed significantly in the new millennium. This is an eternal story. Of course, if we are talking about natural beauty. A hundred years ago there were completely different ideals! But during the time that I have been living in the world (and I have been living for 66 years), the perception of a woman’s beauty has remained the same. Perhaps only the hairstyles change.
About the time. But the sense of time in the modern world has changed a lot. Previously, it went at a completely different rhythm. Like a peasant with a hoe. The sun is already overhead, which means it's time for lunch. Today we have become time catchers. We try to use every minute. If business people make an appointment for 12 o'clock, they know for sure that it will start at exactly 12. The expression “time is money” works more than ever. I would even say that now time is very big money. And yet, the sense of time in different countries very different. I've encountered this many times. In my opinion, in the countries of Southern Europe and Latin America, time does not flow as strictly as in other places on Earth.
About the watch. Their job is to show the time. But here is a story similar to what I told you above: how different watches can be thanks to people’s imagination. Human nature is designed in such a way that we are not ready to stop there, we are eager to improve everything. And not only technically, but also visually. Just for fun. We have a desire to create something special that can delight others. And this is how masterpieces of architecture are born. Likewise, a watch becomes a work of art. I saw a watch that a client ordered from Atelier Cabinotiers Vacheron Constantin. This is an amazingly complex and stunningly beautiful thing that took eight years to create.
About the new world. At the age of 19, I decided to devote my life to travel and therefore became a photographer. He began traveling around Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. I have been traveling constantly for over 40 years. I am attracted to another world, new and unfamiliar. Foreign places interested me more than the faces I saw at home. But I also filmed something in the USA (by the way, I’m originally from Philadelphia), mainly for my own pleasure. Thanks to the Vacheron Constantin project (the watch house, in collaboration with Steve McCurry, chose 12 little-known and inaccessible corners of the world to photograph - MC's note), I found myself where I had long dreamed of visiting. Together we wanted to show amazing monuments of human culture. The watch manufactory in Geneva, the aqueduct in Mexico, the Chand Baori step well in India... On the one hand, simple and functional structures. But how amazing people made them!
Steve McCurry(English) Steve McCurry, R. 1950) - contemporary American photographer, photojournalist, editor. His photograph became widely known "Afghan Girl".
Biography, creativity
Steve McCurry born February 24, 1950 in Philadelphia, USA. He graduated magna cum laude from Pennsylvania State University in 1974 with a degree in theater arts. McCurry took his first photographs for the university newspaper, The Daily Collegian.
After graduating from university, Steve McCurry spent some time taking photographs for the small newspaper Today's Post in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, after which he left for India, where he worked as a freelance photographer.
Shortly before the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan, Steve McCurry, together with journalist Debra Denker, dressed in inconspicuous clothes, illegally crossed the border into Pakistan in a zone that was at that time controlled by the rebels. Later, when he left the war zone, he had to sew the footage into his clothes. Subsequently, his photographs were published in magazines such as The New York Times, TIME and Paris Match. In addition, for his work, the photographer was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal (award in the field of photojournalism) for the best photo report from abroad.
In subsequent years, McCurry continued to cover armed conflicts. Among others, he worked during the Iran-Iraq War, the Lebanese Civil War, the Cambodian Islamic Insurgency Civil War in the Philippines, the Gulf War, and the Afghan Civil War. His photographs were often published in National Geographic magazine. Steve McCurry has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1986.
In 2001, Steve McCurry's work was exhibited at the Leo Burnett International Art Exhibition with Italian artist Umberto Pettinicchio in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2003, the documentary film "The Face of the Human Condition" was released, directed by Denis Delistrak about the life and work of McCurry.
In 2005, Steve McCurry stopped using film. He explained his decision by saying that digital media is much more convenient in the field and, more importantly, photographs can always be sent outside the “danger zone.” In an interview with The Guardian, the photographer said: "Old habits may be hard to break, but my experience is that most of my colleagues, regardless of their age, have switched to digital... The quality has never been better. Plus, now I can , for example, working in extremely low light conditions." However, in June 2010, McCurry took part in a Kodak promotion: the photographer was asked to use the latest Kodachrome film, the production of which had already been suspended at that time. The photographs taken as part of this project were posted publicly on the Internet by Vanity Fair magazine.
In May 2013, McCurry worked on photographs for the Pirelli 2013 Rio de Janeiro calendar.
In 2016, Steve McCurry found himself at the center of a scandal related to the fact that some of his photographs were edited in various editors (for example, the photograph "Afghan Girl" was cropped for use on the cover). McCurry himself, however, reacted quite calmly to the accusations, saying that he does not consider himself a photojournalist, but rather a visual storyteller, who, however, does not lie to his audience, because The changes made do not affect the veracity of the image. The scandal once again raised a number of theoretical questions related to the impossibility of depicting truth in photography.
"Afghan Girl"
Steve McCurry took his most famous photograph in December 1984. The photo, which became known as the Afghan Girl, was taken in a Pashtun refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. In June 1985, she appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine and was later voted "the most famous photograph" in the magazine's history by USA Today. A number of publications (including National Geographic itself and American Photo) call this photograph the “Afghan Mona Lisa.”
Steve McCurry tried several times to find the girl he photographed, but only succeeded in January 2002. As it turned out, her name Sharbat Gula and in 1984 she was about 13 years old (Gula herself does not know exactly her age). She ended up in a refugee camp after her parents were killed in a Soviet helicopter attack on their village.
The photo was taken on Kodachrome color film using a Nikon FM2 camera with a Nikkor 2.5/105 lens ( focal length 105 mm) without additional lighting. It is curious that when taking this photograph, McCurry considered himself particularly lucky that he was able to capture the face of an Afghan woman, which is usually covered by a burqa. Sharbat Gula herself did not know about her fame until 2002 and saw the photograph only in 2003.
The life story of one of the most recognizable photojournalists of our time.
-Which of your photographs best describes your life?
- Life is so complex, it is difficult to describe it in one sentence or in one idea... Maybe a picture where a child runs along an alley between two walls with prints of children's hands. He could probably represent me.
Broken arm
In 1950, a boy named Steve is born in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the age of five, he, curious and lively, like all boys of his age, falls down the stairs and breaks his right arm. The bone heals poorly, and Steve, who is right-handed, has to learn to use his left.
This incident does not change his character at all - he is still interested in everything. Having matured, he chooses the most interesting profession - film director. At the age of 19, he went to Europe for a year, traveling around Sweden, Holland, and Israel. There, to save money and get to know the country from the inside, he lives with host families. In one of them, Steve meets and makes friends with a photographer.
They walk the streets of Stockholm, take photographs, and in the evenings they develop the pictures in a dark room. Then the young man realizes for the first time that photography is a wonderful way to combine his love of travel and an insatiable interest in life. A hand broken in childhood makes itself felt - it is uncomfortable for him to work with his left hand with cameras designed for right-handed people, but this worries him least of all.
As a result, while studying at the University of Pennsylvania, he, in parallel with directing, actively studied photography. He especially likes the work of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. Having received his diploma with honors, Steve does not work a day in his profession, but gets a job as a photojournalist at a newspaper. But the first good photo he does two years earlier, while still a student.
"The Picture That Made Me"
In 1972 he travels to Mexico. While wandering down the street in Mexico City, Steve sees a homeless man slumped against the wall, directly under the window of a furniture store. The young photographer's gaze could not help but be drawn to this sad picture - a man in torn clothes lying on the bare slabs of the sidewalk exactly under a beautiful new sofa displayed in the window. It was this photograph that would set Steve on the path to professional photography.
Working for a newspaper quickly gets boring for a young man. Day after day he films the same thing: school graduations, club meetings... He decides that he doesn’t want to spend his whole life like this, saves money, quits - and leaves for India. Without any guarantees or expectations for photo orders from printed publications. Steve plans to spend six weeks there, but then he finds his true love - all of South Asia. Six weeks stretches over two years. He returns back to America for only a month and immediately leaves again - for Afghanistan.
The Real McCurry
Here in South Asia he will become the Steve McCurry we know. In 1979, in Chitral, right on the border with Afghanistan, he meets several refugees from a neighboring country. They tell the man with the camera that there is a civil war in Afghanistan - people are being killed there, villages are being wiped off the face of the earth. They ask him to go and film what is happening so that the world will know what is really happening.
Steve agrees, even though he has never been in a combat zone before. He thinks it's interesting, that it's an adventure. He is dressed in local clothes and illegally transferred across the border. They shoot at him, he is scared, but he is already one of these people, this is now his story too.
He forwards the photographs to a friend, who offers them to the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor. In December of the same year, the USSR sent troops to Afghanistan. McCurry films this too. His photographs are published by Time and Newsweek magazines and the Associated Press. No one famous photographer, who made small orders for regional newspapers, appears on the front pages of international publications.
Soon National Geographic contacts him. For six months, Steve McCurry has been working on a story for NatGeo, which lands him and his guide in a Pakistani prison. They are shackled and not fed for several days. Then, without explanation, they are released without being deported from the country. McCurry continues to work, but National Geographic refuses to take the story - the editors do not like the text.
It is a big blow for a photographer to realize that he has failed the assignment of such a publishing house. But everything ends well - NatGeo takes another story from Steve and gives a new order. The collaboration continues to this day. It was on the cover of this magazine in June 1985 that the most famous photo McCurry - "Afghan Girl".
In 1986, Steve became a member of the international photo agency Magnum.
"Afghan Girl"
1984, the war in Afghanistan is still far from over. Steve McCurry and a colleague are filming life in a refugee camp in Pakistan when laughter is heard from one of the tents. Photographers look inside - there is a lesson in a makeshift school for girls. Steve asks permission to take some photos. One of the girls, who particularly interested McCurry, covers herself with an old hijab: it is not the custom of these people to allow a strange man, especially a foreigner, to see a woman’s face.
The teacher asks the girl to remove her hands and look directly at the camera. The girl allows us to take a few pictures, but then, completely embarrassed, leaves the tent. But McCurry already knows that photographs taken hastily without a flash will be good - there was so much soul in those precocious adult eyes.
The portrait of an Afghan girl will become one of the most famous shots in history. It will be reprinted millions of times. But no one will know either the name or the fate of this refugee - until in 2002, McCurry, together with the NatGeo group, finds her again with great difficulty. After 18 years, Sharbat Gula’s face will again appear on the cover of the magazine.
In 2004, Steve will create non-profit organization Imagine Asia for distribution of middle and higher education among the residents of Afghanistan - such ordinary people, like Sharbat and her children.
Last film
At the beginning of Steve's career, cameras were only film. It was impossible to predict the quality of the image in advance, before developing the frame. How the photographs of Sharbat Gula turned out, McCurry will find out only a couple of months after the shooting. But digital cameras are gradually completely replacing film ones. In 2009, Kodak decided to stop producing its most popular film, Kodachrome.
In recognition of the merits of Steve McCurry, who shot most of his shots with it, the company's management decides to give the latest film produced to the photographer. “I shot with it for 30 years. My archive contains several hundred thousand photographs. And these 36 frames were supposed to sum it up, to embody them all - to say goodbye to Kodachrome with dignity. It was a beautiful film,” he recalls.
After snapping the last roll, Steve never shot with a film camera again. These photographs were developed on July 14, 2010, and the slides were deposited in perpetuity at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York.
Below you can see all the footage from the latest film.
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Actor Robert De Niro in his screening room in Tribeca, in New York City, May 2010.
De Niro in his screening room, May 2010. (Frame 4, not shown, is a near duplicate.)
De Niro in his office in Tribeca, May 2010.
Indian film actor, director, and producer Aamir Khan in India, June 2010.
A boy in a tea shop in Dharavi, the largest slum in Asia, near Mumbai, India, June 2010.
A sculpture studio in Mumbai that produces statues of notable Indian personages and Hindu gods, June 2010.
Indian film actress and director Nandita Das, in India, June 2010.
Shekhar Kapur, director of Elizabeth, in India, June 2010.
Amitabh Bachchan, one of the country’s most prominent actors, in India, June 2010.
A Rabari tribal elder, photographed in India, June 2010.
A Rabari tribal elder, who is also an itinerant magician, photographed in India, June 2010.
A Rabari tribal elder and itinerant magician, photographed in India, June 2010.
A Rabari woman, photographed in India, June 2010.
A Rabari girl, photographed in India, June 2010.
An elderly Rabari woman, photographed in India, June 2010.
A Rabari boy, photographed in India, June 2010.
Turkish photographer Ara Guler (“The Eye of Istanbul”), in Istanbul, Turkey, June 2010.
Street art at Seventh Avenue and Bleecker Street, in New York City, July 2010.
A woman reading on a Saturday afternoon in Washington Square Park, in New York City, July 2010.
A street performer in Washington Square Park, July 2010.
Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt in his Central Park West studio, in New York City, July 2010.
A young couple in Union Square, in New York City, July 2010.
A self-portrait of Steve McCurry, taken in Manhattan, July 2010.
A man on a bench in front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Union Square, July 2010.
McCurry at four a.m. in his hotel room watching a Stephen Colbert interview on television, in Parsons, Kansas, July 2010.
A local man sleeps outside a community center in Parsons, July 2010.
A statue in a cemetery in Parsons, home to the last photographic lab in the world that developed Kodachrome film, July 2010.
Twice Dead
One day, explaining why he is willing to risk his life in hot spots and go to the most dangerous places in the world, McCurry will say: “I think we want to witness history, see events that have not yet been recorded. We want to be where history is written, because in the end we live simple, boring lives...”
But no one, but this photographer, can complain about boredom. He is imprisoned several times in Pakistan, robbed and almost killed in Thailand, and once nearly drowned in India. After a severe concussion, he loses his memory for a while and barely emerges from the plane that crashed into a winter lake in Slovenia. Survives after a bomb falls tens of meters from his hotel in Afghanistan.
Twice during his time in Afghanistan, his family was informed that Steve was “missing in action, presumed dead.” And a few times he actually thinks it's over. But each time he continues to move forward, towards danger, even when tragedy comes to his own doors.
9/11
September 10, 2001 Steve McCurry returns from a long assignment in China. The next day, he and his assistant are sorting mail in his apartment near Washington Square Park when phone call: “Fire in the World mall" McCurry looks out the window and sees the twin towers burning.
“I grabbed my camera bag, went up to the roof of the house and started taking pictures. We didn’t even know then that they were planes, because we didn’t have a radio or TV on the roof. We thought it was a fire, a terrible tragedy, but it would soon be put out. And then they collapsed.
I could not believe it. I saw them explode, I saw the smoke, but it was impossible - that they were no longer there. My assistant and I ran downstairs to photograph everything in place. It was so surreal. There was fine, fine white dust everywhere and office papers, but no more office equipment: no cabinets, no phones, no computers. Everything seemed to evaporate. There was only dust, steel and paper.
We were there until 9 pm. I went home, but could not sleep, got up at half past four in the morning and went there again. There were police, firefighters, soldiers, but I needed to document everything. I cut a hole in the fence and spent the entire morning of September 12 at the site where the towers stood until the police caught me. But it definitely needed to be documented - and I did it.”
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"My home is Asia"
Now it is almost impossible to find McCurry at home. When he is not teaching seminars for photographers, he travels around the world, often visiting Asia. “Asia is home for me. I love this part of the world. There is such deep culture, geography, such diversity. Their culture goes back thousands of years. The architecture, the language, the clothes - everything is so special.”
But what amazes him much more is how similar people are. They dress in different clothes, build different houses, eat different food. But everyone laughs or is sad the same way. Deep down, we all belong to humanity.
Now Stephen McCurry is 65 years old, but he doesn’t think about stopping. Because there are still so many places to visit: Madagascar, Iran, Russia, return to Tibet. Because “you only live once, and the opportunity to see the world, all its beauty, and secrets, and chaos is a worthy aspiration.” Because a good day is “any day when I see something new, explore the world. And if you can take a good photo, so much the better.”
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