Steve McCurry (you all know his work)

Posted by rjdesign | Filed under Favorites

Late Saturday afternoon, I trekked just west of downtown Houston to the Laura Rathe Gallery to hear Steve McCurry speak of his art. You all know his work from NatGeo…     

Having become world renown, he travels extensively both to promote his work in individual prints as well as his beautifully bound art book, containing select works from a library of well over one-million frames.


Aside from specific history behind an image – which was fascinating in itself, Steve conducted an extensive  Q&A, here’s a peek into some of his views; “Steve, do you pull your own prints?” “As it’s so specialized, I leave it to professionals in that field …“ “Do you crop?” “Yes, typically small amounts, when I see fit, as did most photographers of note, Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, the strength of the image will not change with a small crop…” “Do the images drive the story or does the story drive the images?” “Images drive the story, of course” (laughter). “Does the decline of print publications in exchange for digital publications scare you?” “Not in the least, instead of one image for a cover, I may have one cover image and a link to many more, I see it as both inevitable and as a good thing.” “Do you shoot analog?” “No, I’m exclusively digital now and prefer a 24-70mm as my lens of choice.”


Notes of interest… Steve would repeatedly return to a remote site several days on end to capture what he thought was the right light. He keeps a good degree of what he has shot as he’s learned what appears today as insignificant, can over time become valuable and relevant either through subject matter and/or styling. —As it’s critical for NatGeo to maintain a proper public image they annually compensate the now famous Afghan Girl, Sharbat Gula, both financially and otherwise to avoid any misperception of exploitation. Steve recalls, “one year she wanted to travel to Mecca, NatGeo says “sure…,” can my parents go too?, sure, how about my uncle?… By the time the negotiation ended, NatGeo chartered a plane for Sharbat and 25 relatives to travel to mecca.” —”What keeps you motivated after all this success?” “Continuing to gain a better understanding of things like light.”

Interestingly, Steve commented that for iconic images to become such, they have to stand on their own – outside and above the context in which they were introduced… for example, not as the NatGeo cover but as the Afghan Girl image. However, that’s catch-22 in my mind.

-R-

Permalink | February 21st, 2010

3 Responses to “Steve McCurry (you all know his work)“

  1. james replies:
    February 21st, 2010 at 11:06 PM

    Great write up on an amazing photographer! One question: can you clarify your “catch-22″ conclusion?

    Thanks! /j

  2. Kelly Johnson replies:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 6:22 AM

    The Afghan Girl has always been the bar in portraiture for me. Of course, her stare isn’t always found either!

  3. rjdesign replies:
    February 22nd, 2010 at 7:48 AM

    JE: Thanks for the look and comment. I contend that without NatGeo’s cover, none of us are talking about Afghan Girl, let alone would we have even seen her image. So while I agree that it is an iconic image, few of us ask another if they’ve seen the image without attaching the fact that it was a NatGeo cover. -R-