Photographer: Steve McCurry
Now part of the whole reason this whole website exists is because of my photography class (in case you didn't get that from the home page). And in that said class we were asked to choose a photographer. I choose Steve McCurry, who you can see directly above. So Steve McCurry was born on February 24th, 1950 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. McCurry attended Penn State University where he originally planned to study cinematography and filmmaking, but switched focus to theater arts and eventually graduated in 1974. His interest in photography started when he began to take pictures for the Penn State University newspaper. This interest eventually would lead him to work for another newspaper in the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where he would eventually end up leaving the job to freelance in India.
When McCurry’s journey led him to freelance in India, he was in the middle of a series of wars that took place in that general area. As an aspiring photographer this led him to go out into the contested areas and shoot some pictures, and he did. Dressed in the local area’s attire he snuck across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, into Afghanistan which was under the control by rebel forces. This is where McCurry took some of his most notable pictures, one of them being the, “Afghan Girl” (shown on page 2). Once he took the pictures, the trick was getting it back across the border into uncontested areas and to do this he had to sow rolls of film into his clothes to get it by undetected.
Once McCurry made it back to the United States his pictures were submitted everywhere, from newspapers to magazines, nearly every piece of the media had his pictures. He was the first photographer to show the world what was happening to the people beyond the battlefield. His pictures led him to win numerous awards, like the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad. After his success he moved on to take pictures in other war torn areas such as the Philippines, Cambodia, and Yugoslavia. All the photos he had taken in the areas had one distinct feature and it was that all of them showed what war does to the human faces. McCurry helped to change the world’s view on war by seeing the pain it causes on not only the landscape but the human face. He helped to set precedent for other photographers and news correspondents alike to go out there and show the world of not only the front lines of war, but those that are being directly affected.
Even though I have known of Steve McCurry and his photo taking for a little over a week, his photo taking is very interesting to me. His style of taking is very straight to the point and in a way shows the world for what it actually is. Down below area series of photos taken my Steve McCurry. "The Boy" (left), A Man in The Water (middle), and one of his most famous photos, "Afghan Girl." (right)
When McCurry’s journey led him to freelance in India, he was in the middle of a series of wars that took place in that general area. As an aspiring photographer this led him to go out into the contested areas and shoot some pictures, and he did. Dressed in the local area’s attire he snuck across the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, into Afghanistan which was under the control by rebel forces. This is where McCurry took some of his most notable pictures, one of them being the, “Afghan Girl” (shown on page 2). Once he took the pictures, the trick was getting it back across the border into uncontested areas and to do this he had to sow rolls of film into his clothes to get it by undetected.
Once McCurry made it back to the United States his pictures were submitted everywhere, from newspapers to magazines, nearly every piece of the media had his pictures. He was the first photographer to show the world what was happening to the people beyond the battlefield. His pictures led him to win numerous awards, like the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad. After his success he moved on to take pictures in other war torn areas such as the Philippines, Cambodia, and Yugoslavia. All the photos he had taken in the areas had one distinct feature and it was that all of them showed what war does to the human faces. McCurry helped to change the world’s view on war by seeing the pain it causes on not only the landscape but the human face. He helped to set precedent for other photographers and news correspondents alike to go out there and show the world of not only the front lines of war, but those that are being directly affected.
Even though I have known of Steve McCurry and his photo taking for a little over a week, his photo taking is very interesting to me. His style of taking is very straight to the point and in a way shows the world for what it actually is. Down below area series of photos taken my Steve McCurry. "The Boy" (left), A Man in The Water (middle), and one of his most famous photos, "Afghan Girl." (right)