Biography

Steve McCurry, recognized universally as one of today's finest image-makers, has won many of photography's top awards. Best known for his evocative color photography, McCurry, in the finest documentary tradition, captures the essence of human struggle and joy. Member of Magnum Photos since 1986, McCurry has searched and found the unforgettable; many of his images have become modern icons. Born in Philadelphia, McCurry graduated cum laude from the College of Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. After working at a newspaper for two years, he left for India to freelance. It was in India that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life. "If you wait," he realized, "people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view."

McCurry's career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes and images that would be published around the world which were among the first to show the conflict there. His coverage won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers’ Association. This was the same year in which he won an unprecedented four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. He has won the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award twice.

His work has been featured in most major magazines in the world and frequently appears in National Geographic magazine with recent articles on Tibet, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia. McCurry is driven by an innate curiosity and sense of wonder about the world and everyone in it. He has an uncanny ability to cross boundaries of language and culture to capture stories of human experience. “Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that you could call the human condition.”

Photograph by: Ahmet Sel

BEHIND THE SCENES

A glimpse at the stories behind Steve McCurry's iconic works.

Asylum, Kabul

I was photographing the effects of the shelling in Kabul, when, without warning, hundreds of rockets started pouring down on the city from several different directions. I had to find cover immediately, and the first refuge I saw was what appeared to be a series of abandoned buildings. I dashed for cover in what turned out to be a makeshift facility for the mentally ill. Its residents were victims of decades of war. There were soldiers who had lost their minds and civilians traumatized by the indelible images of the horror that they had witnessed. There was no electricity, no running water, no doctors, no nurses. The smoke from the fire of a makeshift kitchen blackened the ceilings and walls. As I was moving to another part of the courtyard, I looked back and saw that a man had picked up heavy stones and was bashing another inmate in the head. I remember seeing a huge stone bouncing off his head. We wrestled him to the ground and hustled the man to a hospital. That experience haunts me to this day.

Indian Railway Stations

As I was photographing the disparate communities which inhabit the Indian railway stations, I would wander around the platform each time a train rolled in. The train station is a theater and everything happens on its stage. People endlessly wait and camp out in the station. Some even call it home. Travelers must share it with the occasional cow or even monkeys foraging for scraps while vendors endlessly try to attract business. When the train pulls into the station there is a mad dash of humanity. People push through the doors and climb through windows to capture an elusive seat in order to avoid the punishment of having to stand for an entire trip.

One day I came across a solitary figure eating lunch, not an unusual sight in many places, but in the swirl of life in a train station it captured my attention. The man had carved out a quiet refuge in that chaotic universe and seemed to be lost in quiet contemplation which was the perfect foil for the rowdy universe which surrounded him.

September 11, 2001

On September 11 I woke up at 6 a.m. because I was jetlagged. Later that morning my assistant’s mother called and said, ‘Look out the window, the World Trade Center’s on fire.’ I couldn’t believe my eyes. In about two and a half seconds, I grabbed my camera bag and went up on my roof. The ironic thing is that having covered so many wars—the Gulf War, Lebanon, Afghanistan, the Philippines—I was able to go to this particular scene by simply going from the ninth to the twentieth floor of my apartment. I got up on the roof and started shooting furiously. I raced down to Ground Zero, knowing I probably couldn’t get into the area because it was cordoned off, but feeling that I had to do it. This was something that had to be documented. Without calling my photo agency, without making any phone calls to anybody, I just went down there. I spent about half of my time that afternoon just trying to evade arrest since I didn’t have any press credentials with me. I was just trying to work however I could.

Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

In Mumbai during the Ganesh Chaturthi Festival thousands of people march images of Ganesh into the sea. I was photographing this amazing event on the last evening of the festival about twenty minutes after sunset, illuminating the scene with my flash and standing in chest-deep water. Suddenly out of nowhere, a group of revelers came over and started pounding me, and pulled the camera and my head under water. I stopped worrying about my camera, and started thinking about the possibility of drowning. My assistant was also pushed under water and beaten up.
Eventually, one man came to my rescue and helped escort me back to the beach. I felt lucky to be alive at that point. I got back to my hotel room and tried to dry off my equipment with the hair dryer and called the National Geographic technical department. They told me not to bother drying it off, just to throw it away because unlike fresh water, salt water destroys lenses and camera bodies.

This picture shows the water stains and is the last picture that survived of the roll.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Asylum, Kabul

Indian Railway Stations

September 11, 2001

Ganesh Chaturthi Festival

Bookshelf

The Imperial Way

The Iconic Photographs

Unguarded Moment

In the Shadow of Mountains

Looking East

Path to Buddha

Sanctuary

South Southeast

Portraits

Monsoon

Phaidon 55