Steve McCurry is a photographer regignized worldwide from Philadelphia. He kick started his career in photography while working for a newspaper, then moved on to freelancing. Not only is McCurry a freelancing photographer, but a traveler as well. India was the country that touched McCurry’s heart. "If you wait," he realized, "people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view."- Steve McCurry. McCurry’s photos are famous for having connections with the chosen subjects and the people viewing the photos. Through his photos, I could see that McCurry has a passion of capturing the human nature as well as having connections. Human nature like the struggles, pain, joy and more that would appear in his photos. The connection of his subject’s eyes attracts people’s attention to look deep within the surface. A good example of this is the photo of the green-eyed Afghan Girl that stood out from all of his photos, and most likely one of the causes of his great success. What makes this photo so breath taking is the simplicity of the image. There isnt much of an expression on her face, so the viewer's attention is automatically drawn to her eyes.
On the photo:
Steve McCurry shoots such abrupt photos that leave viewers hanging around to dig into the meaning of the photos. When you first look at photo that there’s a young boy, holding a gun that is pointing at him. This would be the surface of this photo but there are lots of hidden things that I have to dig in order to read what’s hidden. The young boy’s face is the first step to find what’s hidden. Tears pouring out of the young boy’s eyes made me feel the need to comfort him and rub his tears away. The tears and the crying, for me, symbolize a lost hope. The gun in his hand captures my eyes and it is the second step towards finding the hidden meaning. This made me think that the young boy is having a hard time and this photo capture the moment when he’s about to give up on life. The gun symbolizes of losing faith. The young boy in this photo symbolize of all human beings (humanity). All these three things, the gun, tears and the young boy add up and equals to the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that all human beings (the young boy) have moments when their eyes would be pouring out with tears and a gun would stand along beside them. This type of moments is when human beings lose hope and faith in their lives and that the gun is the key to end the painful moment. I think McCurry wants people to look at this photo so that when this type of moments comes along, they shouldn’t lose their hope and faith. And that people should continue on their life rather than ending it and having regrets. After all we as human beings have one life to live.
Understanding McCurry’s works; travels, photography and personal life gives me an insight of digging beneath the surface to find the other side of life that hasn’t been noticed or touched. His photography made me connect with that other side of life of people whom I have never noticed. I learned that his photos make people around the world connect with each other and learn to understand of the difference and similarities with people living in different cultures. From learning this, I gained an understanding of how a great photograph tells a story of the people living in different cultures. It’s difficult to find that story as it is hidden beneath the photo. That is what a great photograph should be; digging up the surface to find the hidden meaning/story. A great photograph also attracts people’s curiosity to look for that too. These are some of the factors that makes great photos endure and last for decades.
1 comment:
Amalia, an extremely thoughtful reflection and interpretation of the photo. You embedded the quotes well. Try to include the date after each quote in future. I loved the part where you talked about your understanding of human nature, and how this is reflected as a theme in Mc Curry's work. The analysis of your chosen picture was mature and coherent. Well done.
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