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Steve McCurry has been one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography for more than 40 years, with scores of magazine and book covers, over a dozen books, and countless exhibitions around the world to his name.
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. Traveling with little more than a bag of clothes and another of film, he made his way across the subcontinent, exploring the country with his camera.
It was after several months of travel that he found himself crossing the border into Pakistan. 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. Emerging in traditional dress, with full beard and weather-worn features after weeks embedded with the Mujahideen, McCurry brought the world the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan, putting a human face to the issue on every masthead.
Since then, McCurry has gone on to create stunning images on all seven continents and countless countries. His work spans conflicts, vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture alike - yet always retains the human element that made his celebrated image of the Afghan Girl such a powerful image.
McCurry has been recognized with 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. The Minister of French Culture has also appointed McCurry a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters and most recently, the Royal Photographic Society in London awarded McCurry the Centenary Medal for Lifetime Achievement.
McCurry has published books including "The Imperial Way" (1985), "Monsoon" (1988), "Portraits" (1999), "South Southeast" (2000), "Sanctuary" (2002), "The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage" (2003), "Steve McCurry" (2005), "Looking East" (2006), "In the Shadow of Mountains" (2007), "The Unguarded Moment", (2009), "The Iconic Photographs" (2011), "Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs" (2013), "From These Hands: A Journey Along the Coffee Trail" (2015), "India" (2015), and "On Reading" (2016), "Afghanistan" (2017), "A Life in Pictures" (2018), "Animals" (2019), "In Search of Elsewhere" (2020), and "Stories & Dreams: Portraits of Childhood", (fall 2021).
Videos
Speech Topics
Search for the Afghan Girl
His iconic image of the young Afghan refugee girl resonated more than any National Geographic cover in recent memory. McCurry would search the Afghanistan/Pakistan border camps for 20 years before finding Sharbat Gula again to learn her story.
Close Calls
On assignment for National Geographic, McCurry has had his share of close calls—surviving a plane crash into a lake in the Balkans; riding in a lost plane, searching for the runway as it runs out of fuel over Africa; being attacked by a mob during a religious frenzy; and twice reported killed—and has emerged to tell the tales, crediting a mix of good fortune, destiny, and more than one heroic bystander.
Steve McCurry: Face to Face
Stories have the power to inspire, motivate, transform, and heal, but before a photographer can get to the story he or she must first find a way to connect with total strangers. Go behind the scenes with this master photographer as he shares his method for capturing the essence of a person through the art of portraiture.
Stories From the Field
McCurry shares highlights from his career on the road with National Geographic, along with some of the most fascinating stories his photography subjects have shared with him.
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