There, he met a group of refugees from Afghanistan, who smuggled him across the border into their country, just as the Russian Invasion was closing the country to all western journalists. It was after several months of travel that he found himself crossing the border into Pakistan. Travelling with little more than a bag of clothes and another filled with film, he made his way across the subcontinent, exploring the country with his camera. After several years of freelance work, McCurry made his first of what would become many trips to India. 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.īorn in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania McCurry studied film at Pennsylvania State University, before going on to work for a local newspaper. He is most famous for his evocative color photography, which has captured stories of human experience that, in the finest documentary tradition, transcend boundaries of language and culture.Steve McCurry has been one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography for over three decades, documenting conflicts, vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture.

A regular contributor to many international journals, McCurry is a member of Magnum Photos and a recipient of the Robert Capa Gold Medal and an unprecedented four World Press Photo first prizes in a single year many of McCurry's images have since become modern icons. Critically acclaimed and recognized internationally for his classic reportage, over the last thirty years he has worked on numerous assignments, travelling extensively throughout the Middle and Far East. This fresh new edition, expanded to feature more photographs than before, including some never-before published, creates an up-to-date and unrivalled collection of McCurry's portraiture.

This image accompanies the other remarkable faces he has encountered whilst travelling throughout the world, collected together in an engaging and moving series of unique street portraits: unposed, unstylized images of people that reveal the true universality of the depths of human emotion. The intensity of the subject's eyes and her compelling gaze made this one of the most widely and consistently celebrated portraits in the history of contemporary photography. In 1985, Steve McCurry photographed an Afghan girl for the National Geographic.

Portraits by steve mccurry