Description

Steve McCurry has been photographing in India for more than four decades and a signature of this work is his portrait-style photos, with his subject’s often unabashed stare into the camera that suggests a striking intimacy. “I prefer that they look me in the eyes rather than at the camera lens,” he says. “The Indian people are used to cameras and they like being photographed.” Pictured here, a a Rabari Shepherd in Rajasthan, India, 2009. Pictured here a mother and child ask for alms through a taxi window during the monsoon in Bombay in 1993.

The photograph is an undeniably powerful medium. Free from the constraints of language, and harnessing the unique qualities of a single moment frozen in time

Steve McCurry
© Steve McCurry | Magnum Photos

Steve McCurry was born in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; McCurry studied film at Pennsylvania State University, before going on to work for a local newspaper.

After several years of freelance work, McCurry made his first of what would become many trips to India. Since then, McCurry has gone on to create evocative images in over six continents and countless countries, with scores of magazine and book covers, as well as solo global exhibitions.

His image of a young Afghan refugee with piercing eyes – the June 1985 National Geographic cover – has become one of the most distinctive in photographic history. McCurry has been a contributor to Magnum since 1986.

© Steve McCurry | Magnum Photos

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