Steve McCurry is a well recognized & a very fine photographer who has won many top international awards for photography. McCurry’s photos explore people in difficult situations, performing ordinary tasks in their culture or just simple portraits show us the struggles and joys of life. The photographs depict realities of today’s world, including resilience of human spirit, hope, hardship, determination, wars and effects of wars on humanity etc. McCurry himself comments about his photographs in his words saying, “Most of my pictures 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 I guess you’d call the human condition”.
I find all of McCurry’s pictures very meaningful and impressive. Below are some of the pictures, which stand out for me.
Boy sells Boy flower Children play on an anti-aircraft gun near Beirut, Tanks become toys in Kandahar, Afghanistan, 1994
In busy road, India 1993 Lebanon, 1982.
In the first picture above, a child is seen selling flowers to bus passengers. Child labor, which is quite common in certain countries, is one of the evils of society. Like the picture of the boy selling flowers, I have myself seen so many children doing such odd jobs to earn a bit of money in India. As I grow up, I want to somehow spread a message that child labor should be abolished.
The other two pictures that particularly stand out for me are the ones that show how the monstrous death machines have become a playground for children in Lebanon & Afghanistan. What is expected out of children who play with guns and ammunitions’ instead of books and general toys? Is this not a very bad influence of wars on humanity? As McCurry puts it, “Whether it is splashing in puddles or climb on abandoned tanks, their world of make believes is almost as important food and shelter.” I would say the same after seeing such images. The world should be a happier place to live rather than being a battlefield. This picture makes me wonder that the governments are unable to give the children what they deserve. Instead, children are being shown the path to violence. While my own circumstances are so different, I still feel a strong connection as we both share the same affection for children.
Overall McCurry’s photos emphasize on humanity and quality of life. He also lays lot of emphasis on the ongoing war in Afghanistan and how the citizens of the country are affected. McCurry’s photographs are results of his Insatiable Curiosity, Hard work, Fortitude and Determination, Continuous learning and ability to evolve & reinvent with heart and mind open. In one of his blog post Steve tells us what he does to take all these spectacular images about many lives unseen by many humans before. He is doing a marvelous job by publishing all these images to show the world how people struggle and still get nothing.
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