Steve McCurry
is an iconic figure of contemporary photography. His works were on the covers of magazines and books; he published more than a dozen books, and he had countless
exhibitions
around the world.
There’s a chance that there is not a single newspaper reader/internet user who haven’t seen the American photographer’s iconic photo from 1984: the green-eyed
Afghan
girl
,
Sharbat
Gula
was 12 years old when the shot was made, and that was the first time she was ever photographed. The picture appeared on the June 1985 cover of
National Geographic
, it instantly became the most famous photo of the magazine, and it spread in the media all over the world. Among many other works, this picture (lent to the museum by a Danish collector) will be on display at the exhibition that opens at
Kunsthalle
at the end of February.
Born in a suburb of Philadelphia,
McCurry
studied film at Pennsylvania State University before starting to work for a local newspaper. After several years of freelance work, he travelled across India for months with just a backpack of clothes and film, while he explored the country with his camera. After months of travelling, he crossed the border of Pakistan, where he met a group of Afghan refugees. He was smuggled into Afghanistan right before the Soviet invaders shut down the country from western journalists. He spent several weeks disguised as a mujahideen – thanks to McCurry the world received the first pictures of the Afghan conflict, his photos showing the human face of war were all over the media. Since then, he made incredible shots in numerous countries; his main interests are conflict-affected areas, cultures on the verge of disappearing, ancient traditions, and contemporary culture.
Humans have the main importance on all his pictures – that’s the reason his famous photograph of the Afghan girl is so powerful. McCurry received the most prestigious awards of photography: he was awarded with a
Robert Capa
Gold Medal, and won first place at World Press Photo Competition four times. The Minister of French Culture appointed him Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, and recently he was awarded with the Centenary Medal by the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, London.
