Afghan Girl, near Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984
http://www.pdngallery.com/legends/mccurry/template.html
Steve McCurry’s life and career changed when he traveled around Afghanistan in the 1980s while the Soviet/ Afghan war was going on. He has spent the rest of his life to date photographing Southeast Asia, and other areas of the world, to teach people about how others live. His photographs show that all people are very much alike and his portraits demonstrate that a person’s life and character are revealed on their face. A face shows what someone has experienced in their lifetime and how they have responded to it. Steve McCurry is inspired by his subjects and his goal is to educate people about how others live, improve the lives of his subjects, and to show how similar we all are. He successfully accomplishes this through his photographs.
To research this thesis, I used several different techniques. First, I found interviews with Steve McCurry that gave me an insight into how he feels about his work and what he tries to do with his photographs. Next, I looked at what other people have written about him and read their analyses of his life and his art. Finally, I examined McCurry’s pictures and made up my own mind about what they are trying to accomplish.
Steve McCurry tries to form a connection with all of his subjects which is something that sets him apart from many other photographers. This causes him to portray his subjects in a very respectful and compassionate way. He is inspired by the people he takes pictures of and wants to educate others about them. He also wants his pictures to be artistically interesting. Besides helping his subjects through his portraits, McCurry has created a foundation, ImagineAsia that helps provide education and healthcare to people in rural Asian villages.
Steve McCurry’s photographs illustrate three important things- people are all very much alike, our lives are displayed on our faces, and our characters can be seen by looking at our faces. No matter where someone lives, they feel the same emotions and fundamentally experience the same things. Everyone feels happy and sad, calm and frustrated, angry and sympathetic. We all make the same facial expressions to communicate these feelings. People everywhere experience humor, happiness, and tragedy, admittedly in different degrees.
While people from different areas of the globe are very much the same, they can lead extremely different lives. This is often reflected by their faces in the form of wrinkles, sunburns, wounds, and scars. Also, the ways that people respond to their experiences is different and is shown in their faces through their eyes, facial expressions, and smile or frown lines. People can react with humor, happiness, and dignity, allowing the trials in their lives to make them stronger or they can become hard, angry, and defiant, letting their lives break them down. I think that McCurry’s images effectively show how similar people are and successfully reveal people’s lives and characters through their faces.
Prompts
• Was there anything in the presentation that was not clear? Anything that you would like to see addressed?
• Do you agree with me in saying that a person’s life and character can be seen on someone’s face? Why or why not? Are McCurry’s images effective in showing this?
• Look through some of Steve McCurry’s portraits and pick one that stands out to you. (Go to McCurry’s website: http://www.stevemccurry.com/main.php, click on “Galleries” on the right, then click on “Portraits” under the picture of a girl with a yellow shawl). Analyze the subject of the picture and describe what kind of life you think they have and who they are. Does Steve McCurry accomplish his goals of being educational and artistic? Can you find similarities between yourself and the subject? Explain.
