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.
You can usually tell what kind of life a person has led by looking at the clothes they are wearing and the condition of those clothes. If someone is wearing a perfectly pressed foreign suit that probably means that the person is rich and well off. On the other hand, if someone is wearing rags, jeans and t-shirt and are ripped and dirty with nothing else besides a thin jacket, it’s a good indication that the person is poor and does not have enough money to support themselves or their family. However the best way to determine what type of life a person has led and how they view that life is by looking at the person’s face. Steve McCurry captures a person’s life and character in his photos.
ReplyDeleteI believe that a person’s character and life can be seen in their face and facial expression. You showed us a photograph of a lady who has black teeth, an unattractive face and several rings covering her neck. Her black teeth and unattractive face showed how she has lived a hard life, a life of poverty and probably a life of loss. However, she is smiling and laughing. We have all had our share of tough times but this lady takes joy in the fact that she is still living and laughs at the moments that are amusing. She is not going to be angry with the life she has, but thankful that she has life.
My favorite picture that you showed us was titled Feyzabad Afghanistan. It is obvious that the little girl McCurry photographed has had an extremely hard and dangerous life. Her clothing is tattered and dirty. Her skin is filthy and her hair is unkempt. She also has scratches or sores around her mouth and her eyes look haunted. I am concerned for this little girl. I cannot even begin to fathom what she has been through and I probably would not be able to handle her problems as well as she has. She is held very close by her father and I believe that he is trying to protect her the best that he can. His hand is around her protectively and lovingly; he might not have been able to protect her from the sights she has seen but he can try and make sure she is not harmed. Meanwhile the father’s other hand is holding the little girl’s baby brother or sister.
In Feyzabad Afghanistan and many of his other photographs, McCurry successfully shows what is going on in the country through the faces of his subjects. People from thousands of miles away can see the devastation and fear that these people have to live through every day. His pictures are also very artistic because the viewer can not help but stare at the picture wondering who these people are, what has happened to them, and what will happen to them in the future. After looking at the little girl in Feyzabad Afghanistan, I am curious as to if she is still alive or if the devastation occurring in her country has finally killed her. The only similarity I think I have with the little girl is that my parents would protect me with as much fervor and commitment as her father is protecting her. Other than that, this little girl has seen things that I could never dream of seeing and has survived moments that I will never have to live through. She is very brave to endure such hardships.
I do not think that large assumptions about a person’s lives can be made by viewing their faces. I love the idea of looking at an old woman’s face and reading the joy in her smile lines. But to me, it seems astronomically impossible. It’s easy to make inferences based on the clothes that someone is wearing, and whether or not they were smiling at the moment the picture was taken. We can say that a person appears to be poor based on their clothing, and that they look happy because they were smiling the moment the picture was taken. But I feel as if anything else we take away from a photograph is a gross overgeneralization. Maybe it is an example of the limitations of photography, but I feel like the things we can discover from a photograph are limited to what we can see, not what we can infer.
ReplyDeleteI was discussing this hypothesis with a few friends over dinner and decided that I wanted to set up an experiment. So, I searched the internet for three obscure pictures of people that my test subjects had not seen before. The first was of a young woman in her boyfriend’s arms, smiling at the camera, the second was of an army soldier dressed in camouflage gear, and the third was of a stern faced middle aged man in a two pocketed button up shirt. My subjects “read” each person’s face and told me what they could infer about his or her life. As it turns out, they were all very wrong. The first woman, who they didn’t see any evil in at all, was Lynndie England, one of the soldiers responsible for the Abu Gharib prisoner abuse debacle. The next man, was also not identified a future criminal, was Timothy McVeigh, the man behind the Oklahoma City Bombings. The last, who they certainly didn’t think was a “good guy”, was a two time U.S. Medal of Honor recipient, John H. Pruitt.
While the idea of reading someone’s face seems like a wonderful notion, in my opinion and primitive research, I don’t think that it is a real possibility. It is entirely plausible for broad generalizations to apply to any number of people, i.e. this person looks like he/she has experienced joy in their life. But that is the same way that horoscopes work. A single frame of a person cannot tell us any more than an ill-fated attempt at reading someone’s palm can.
I wonder if, as I mentioned earlier, this is one of the major flaws of photography. Looking at photographs thatI am pictured in, or ones that I took myself, I am instantly catapulted back into memories of the occasion. But when I look at other people’s photographs I don’t really get a big sense of what is going on, aside from the expression on their faces in that split second in time and their scenery. It seems to me like pictures only serve to jog one’s memory. This would also explain why everyone hates that moment at a gathering when the host decides to show you pictures from his/her most recent vacation. To put it in a more modern sense,
“Look at the new pictures I put up of me in Mexico on facebook”.
“Groan”
Steve McCurry creates profound and moving images. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they are also inspiring, they have an impact on the viewer and a social and political intent. You addressed this very well in your presentation. Most of McCurry’s works stem from events happening in the world around him and the images are his way of responding to the issues.
ReplyDeleteOne can especially see this in the images pertaining to the prison where American soldiers hold war prisoners. The images show the atrocious and disturbing occurrences, but they make the social impact intended. In your presentation you address them thoroughly, perhaps a little bit too much. For me, I got more of a political agenda in that discussion than one of art. I realized that is a big part of his work, but would have preferred more on the art itself rather than your frustration with the situation and events.
McCurry does an excellent job of truly capturing his subjects. He is very apt at going beyond the superficial exterior of the subject and exposing the true character. Much of an individual’s personality can be found in their face, posture and body language. In turn their personality can reveal how they react to the hardships, the joys and the situations they face in life.
If the eyes are windows to the soul, then the face is the visible account of experiences. Wrinkles and lines tell of joy or sorrow and the shape of the mouth speaks of contentment or discontent. Everything you need to know about a person can be learned from examining their face. McCurry knows this and it is found throughout his work. He truly captures the essence of his subjects’ characters on film and presents it to the world so that people can draw their own conclusions about life.
I agree that a person’s life and character can be seen on their face. With years, or lack of years, come emotion, wrinkles, and a certain look from behind the eyes. When a person has been through a trying situation, it leaves a mark not only on their heart, but on their face. Harsh working conditions can leave a mark in the form of leathery, stretched skin from being in the sun, while an easy life can leave creamy, beautiful skin behind. Wrinkles can also form from laughing too much, frowning, or old age, revealing yet another aspect to the person’s life. A person’s life can also be seen by what their eyes tell about them. If they have a light behind them, are dull with age or boredom, or show wisdom.
ReplyDeleteBesides life being shown in a face the character of a person can also be seen. If a person is mean or unhappy in their life, it will immediately come across on their face. The furrowing of eyebrows, the lines left from unhappiness cannot be masked in a photo, if they are there, they will show up. The character of a happy person also comes across. Facial movements can be captured in a photograph even in motion and reveal a great deal about someone.
Steve McCurry’s photos really show the essence of a person because his subject isn’t always staring straight into the camera, and is rarely posing. When capturing an image, true feelings can sometimes be hidden, but what the face tells cannot be. He really does this with Afghan girl and in his other collections as well. He reminds me of the photographer I researched, because he seems to see a moment and capture it, all of it, good or bad. No matter what the person’s face says he captures it in its fullest.
He captures relationships, fears, hopes, all of it. His families collection is really interesting to me because lives of families and the character of their members are unique. He does not see what the family wants him to see, he sees the truth. Families always like to put on shows of being perfect, or at least functional, but he gets past that, to the truth. He also captures the pride of a family and the situation at hand. His work is really interesting in that manner because he is able to see so much.
Overall, your presentation was really clear and easy to follow. I think maybe a little more focus on what the pictures tell us or going into relationships could be interesting, but overall, it was a great presentation and really interesting.