Steve McCurry/Pensacola Magazine/August 2014/ by Kelly Oden

Pensacola • Your City • Your Magazine

August 2014

Steve McCurry The Stories Behind the Photographs

You may not recognize his name, but you likely know his work. Steve McCurry’s soulful portraits of men, women, children and the landscapes in which they live span the globe. From Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and China to Peru, Brazil, Yemen, Pakistan and of course, Afghanistan, the bold photographer has a knack for capturing the human condition. His portraits depict unique people and their cultures, traditions and conflicts, giving his subjects a sense of dignity and grace in even the most turbulent of conditions. McCurry is likely best known for the candid, riveting, and intense portrait of a young Afghan girl taken in 1984 in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. The iconic image graced the cover of National Geographic and is considered to be the most recognizable photo in the world.

McCurry was born and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia and he studied film at Pennsylvania State University. After honing his skills at the local newspaper and several years of freelance work, McCurry made his first trip to India. Traveling for months with his camera and a few supplies, McCurry eventually made his way to Pakistan. Just as the Russian invasion was closing the country to all western journalists, a group of Afghan refugees helped smuggle McCurry into Afghanistan. After spending weeks embedded with the Mujahideen, McCurry emerged with the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan.

And he hasn’t stopped since. McCurry’s work has covered six continents and countless countries and he has been the recipient of some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, National Press Photographers Award, and an unprecedented four first-prize awards from the World Press Photo contest.

Your opportunity to view and be moved by McCurry’s powerfully emotional images arrives on Aug. 18 when an exhibition of his work, titled The Importance of Elsewhere, opens at Pensacola State College’s Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts. McCurry will also offer Pensacolians a lecture on his work at the Saenger Theatre on Aug. 27. The lecture is titled The Stories Behind The Photographs and you won’t want to miss it.

Pensacola Magazine had the great fortune to speak with McCurry in anticipation of his exhibition and lecture.

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Photo by Bruno Barbey

Interview by Kelly Oden

Peshawar, Pakistan by Steve McCurry

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How did your love affair with photography begin?

I studied filmmaking at Penn State University. While studying cinematography, I took some photography classes and discovered a love for photography.

You rather famously entered Afghanistan at a very tumultuous time in 1978. How nervous were you crossing the border into Afghanistan for the first time?

I was very apprehensive. Basically, I was going into a country illegally and I was going into a war zone with people I didn’t really know and people I couldn’t really communicate with. I didn’t speak their language and they didn’t speak English. It was a war zone and I was very apprehensive and reluctant to go in. I just thought it was worth the chance; it seemed like a very risky proposition at the time. I just decided that it was worth taking that risk. Part of me thought, this is going to be an adventure, and part of me thought it was too much of a risk. I decided to go anyway.

How many times have you been back to Afghanistan?

I’ve been there about 30 times. I haven’t been there for almost three years because I’ve been working on other projects and doing other things. In a way I feel like that was a chapter in my life, which I may go back to again, but I don’t have any plans to in the near future.

How do you choose a location and how do you go about hiring guides and interpreters?

I do a fair amount of research, but the main point is to try to organize a really good translator and a good driver. I always like to do the research on the ground once I get there. A lot of times you have to be there to really see what the latest situation is. All the research in the world can’t really prepare you. I think you have to do some research, but then you really have to do it once you get there. I am a planner. I spend my time trying to get the right team together, and then I try to figure out where to go and how to go. That’s really the core to the puzzle.

You often photograph people in places that are in turmoil or undergoing profound change. What draws you to those themes?

I think these are historic times and pivotal times, times that are deciding the future of the people of the region. I want to be part of that conversation. I want to be there to witness and to tell that story of these monumental events and, as I said, pivotal historic situations that determine the state of the region, whether it is Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.

People often talk about your work in terms of the themes of war and turmoil and change. What do you see as the central theme to your work?

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I think it’s about the consequences of war on a civilian population and how two competing factions can accept killing and injuring lots of civilians—men, women and children. I think that’s the main theme. I never really thought of myself as a war photographer. I’m more of somebody who is trying to tell the story of the people who are caught in the middle. I think that makes a more important story because those are the people who don’t really have any say or control over their problems. They end up getting maimed or killed or wounded because of these two forces.

That comes across beautifully in your photographs. Do you think that is what draws people to your work?

I would say there is a certain humanity that comes through so that people can see these are real people. The human element, the human story—I think that is really what draws people, the humanity.

How much interaction do you have with your subjects just before or just after photographing them? Do you ask permission first?

It varies on a case-by-case basis. You really have to evaluate it from moment by moment. What’s the right thing to do, the ethical thing? Am I violating this person’s privacy? You can’t really generalize it since what may have worked in one situation, may not work in another.

You are best known for your photo Afghan Girl. I know that you met Sharbat Gula many years later.

Can you tell me what that experience was like?

Well, it was profound, to be able to find her again and to actually do something for her. It took 17 years to finally be able to find out what happened to her. To sit with her and talk to her and help her had an amazing effect. I think it was a great situation for everybody.

I would say there is a certain humanity that comes through so that people can see these are real people. The human element, the human story—I think that is really what draws people.

Top: Rajasthan, India by Steve McCurry Above: Waligama, Sri Lanka by Steve McCurry

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What stuck with you the most about her life from that meeting?

She was a very typical Afghan person who, like so many other Afghans, had been caught up in the war. They actually had to beg for their lives, for their families, and they were victims of this political conflict. I was struck by the fact that she is kind of a symbol for Afghan women, Afghan refugees, and Afghans in general.

How does she feel now about her picture being taken?

I think she’s very grateful for how it turned out and how it helped her family. We compensated her for the picture, which provided her security and a home.

I love your quote, “If you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view.”

Can you elaborate on that sentiment?

What I try to achieve in a portrait is something that reveals the subject’s personality.

Is there anywhere on your bucket list that you haven’t been to yet?

I want to go to Iran and Madagascar. I’ve always been intrigued by Persian culture. Also, I’ve worked in every country in the region with the exception of Iran. Madagascar has an incredible culture along a rich flora and fauna.

In your book, Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs, you tell never-before-told stories about your travels and images. Do you have a most harrowing or most gratifying story to share with our readers?

One of the most frightening experiences I’ve had was crashing into a frigid glacial lake in the former Yugoslavia. I had hired a small, ultra-light, two-seater airplane to do aerials over Bled Lake in Slovenia. The pilot flew down to the surface of the lake, so close that I told him to go up because we were only about five feet from the water. The wheels got caught in the water and we couldn’t pull out. As soon as the fuselage and the propeller hit the water, the propeller blew apart. We flipped upside down in the 40-degree water and immediately began to sink. The seatbelt was a jerry-rigged homemade device and I couldn’t get it off. I realized I was going to die. I guess that part of your brain concerned with self-preservation kicked in, and I finally slid underneath and swam to the surface. My passport and equipment went to the bottom. Fortunately, the pilot and I were picked up by a fisherman within ten minutes. Days later the plane was raised, but all of my equipment was lost and is still 60 feet down.

I was surprised to read how much you embraced digital versus film. When did you switch and what do you see as the pros and cons?

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I switched about ten years ago. I don’t feel at all nostalgic about film, I’m a big fan of digital photography. You can shoot in incredibly low light which was never possible with film.

You’ve won a number of awards and you are a member of a number of elite photography groups. What award or membership are you most proud of?

Probably the Overseas Press Club award—it is awarded for outstanding courage and enterprise.

What are your must-have tools of the trade when out photographing?

My camera, I guess. I shoot with different cameras for different reasons. Also, I use a tripod when the light gets too low.

Are there any trends in contemporary photography that interest you or that you admire?

I think it’s great that most cell phones have excellent cameras in them so virtually everybody with a cell phone now can photograph their friends, family and their life in general.

If you weren’t a photographer, what would you be doing?

I’d be a filmmaker.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m working on a book on Buddhism. It’s a personal project, and I’m about 60-70 percent done.

Can you tell me a little about the theme of your Pensacola State College exhibit, The Importance of Elsewhere and your subsequent slide lecture?

What can people expect when they come?

I thought it would be interesting to tell the stories behind the pictures. So many of my other lectures have been primarily photographs, so I wanted to talk about my process and the back story as to how these pictures came about, such as the circumstances during the monsoon, in Afghanistan when the conflict first began, and 9/11, amongst others. What I want people to take from this exhibition and lecture is compassion for their fellow humans, whether it’s an image of Sri Lankan men fishing alongside one another or an Indian woman holding her child as she presses her hand against a car window. I want the viewer to leave knowing more about the vibrant world that surrounds them.

I was struck by the fact that she is kind of a symbol for Afghan women, Afghan refugees, and Afghans in general.

Top: Brazil by Steve McCurry Above: Zhengzhou,China by Steve McCurry

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Rajasthan, India by Steve McCurry Steve McCurry: The Importance of Elsewhere August 18–December 12 Pensacola State College Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts

An Evening with Steve McCurry August 27 Pensacola Saenger Theatre

Top: Bombay/Mumbai,India by Steve McCurry Above: Yanesha,Peru by Steve McCurry

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