Why Steve McCurry Feels Current Moscow Show Is A Landmark

On a typically salubrious evening in the Russian capital this month, the city바카라�s elite clinks champagne flutes on the art-peppered lawns of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. The cynosure of all eyes is a diminutive man. His name: Steve McCurry. As a world-famous photojournalist, the American is best known for 바카라�The Afghan Girl바카라�바카라�a captivating still of an Afghan-Pashtun orphan with her piercing green eyes that rocked the world as the cover of an issue of the National Geographic magazine in 1985. McCurry was 35 then.

Today, the image-maker is at MMOMA on 10, Gogolevsky Boulevard. At the inaugural of his latest exhibition titled 바카라�The Untold Story바카라�, he is dressed in a striped blue shirt, grey trousers and black blazer. It바카라�s a highly anticipated show. Flashbulbs pop, as the celebrity lensman바카라�flanked by MMOMA director Vasili Tsereteli and acclaimed Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli who is president of the Russian Academy of Arts바카라�faces a phalanx of photographers. Guests queue up to pump flesh (or take the obligatory selfie), while correspondents (like yours truly), wait for a chance to interview a man whose oeuvre has propelled him into the orbit of all-time greats.

바카라�The Untold Story바카라� is a collection of 85 works which curator Dimitri Ozerkov tells me was culled over two years from a gargantuan collection. The event offers an insight into 68-year-old McCurry's artistic language that amalgamates a reporter's approach with a photographer바카라�s empathy towards his subjects. It also explains why more than a reporter/photojournalist, McCurry prefers to call himself an 바카라�observer바카라� or 바카라�storyteller바카라�.

(Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl. Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984. © Steve McCurry)

Each image at the two-month-long exhibition ending onSeptember 2 possesses a rare and powerful intensity that imprints itself in the viewer바카라�s mind indelibly. Vignettes from India, too, do come바카라�in strong torrents: often rain-soaked, as the vast Asian country is now what with monsoons having covered its entire expanse. There are Rajasthani women huddled under a tree as a sandstorm whips up around them, a flower-seller on a glutinous Dal Lake in Kashmir바카라�s Srinagar바카라�. On another mountainous location further east of the Himalayas shows a pilgrim바카라�in Drango Monastery of Kham in Tibet.

Though part of a larger narrative바카라�each photo is a remarkable standalone portrayal that helps one understand why McCurry바카라�s art occupies an exalted place in the tradition of 20th-century photography. An intrepid career spanning over three decades has yielded poignant, riveting snapshots from scores of geographies바카라�the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, images from Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, the former Yugoslavia....

Then there are photographs produced during his trips to Myanmar, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, many of them documenting the lives of Buddhist monks. McCurry바카라�s vibrantly joyous images that capture the way India celebrates events are reinforced by his books on the country, including Monsoonand Steve McCurry: India.

(Dust Storm. Rajasthan, India, 1983. © Steve McCurry)

However, for the acclaimed chronicler, the photos at the Moscow exhibition are the 바카라�most important ones바카라� in his career. 바카라�These are the places and human states that seem to me the most significant,바카라� he says. 바카라�They show the story about people and life around the world, and my unfinished visual diary. They represent places and people that I바카라�ve met that explain why I spent my time travelling and exploring the world we live in.바카라�

Along with photographs, the exhibition also showcases fragments from the lensman바카라�s notebooks, his travel itineraries and archive material hitherto unveiled publicly. One of his travelling notebooks contains a simple mantra for a successful shot: 바카라�You have to get into the water to make good pictures바카라�.

It is a motto that has defined McCurry's career. He has leveraged the most traditional form of photography (portraiture) to capture unique geographies, the planet바카라�s diversity and its cultural wealth. It also makes him one of the most important voices in contemporary photography. Today, McCurry has over a dozen books besides countless magazine/book covers and exhibitions to his credit. 바카라�My camera is my passport,바카라� he said famously. He carries it wherever he goes.

(Portrait Photographer. Kabul, Afghanistan, 1992. © Steve McCurry)

McCurry carried it to India in 1978. Never mind if he has visited the country over 80 times. What appeals most to him about the nation of 1.3 billion people? 바카라�India's cultural richness fascinates me with its many different religions,바카라� he explains. 바카라�It is so vast, but somehow it works and the people still find a common identity. I never will tire of India바카라�s rich and varied culture and geography, and its exuberant, celebratory spirit바카라�in those senses, you cannot find another country that compares. I still feel I have barely scratched the surface of Indian culture and, to this day I am drawn to return there once or twice a year. If I had to choose just one country to live my life in, it would be India.바카라�

Making India his base, McCurry also forayed into Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1980s, freelancing for leading international dailies and weeklies. War-ravaged Afghanistan was where he returned decade after decade. Starting from the time when Soviet Red Army was fighting ferociously with the Mujahideen and city after Afghan city was being pulverised by relentless mortar-shelling. The refugee camps that peppered the Afghan-Pakistan border brimmed with tragic human stories. McCurry got to work in this violent and virulent landscape chronicling stories of hope and survival.

(Waiters exchange trays across a train in Lahore, Pakistan. Photo Neeta Lal)

In fact, McCurry was the first to record the Afghan conflict, the coverage of which at that time was censored both in the USA and Soviet Union. He opines that war brings out people바카라�s true nature, the best and worst, when it is a matter of life and death. 바카라�I was in Afghanistan during some of the worst bombings that went on constantly day and night,바카라� recalls the photographer. 바카라�After a couple of close calls with bombs and mortar rounds, you start you feel like your number may be up any time.바카라�

So what attracted him to conflict-ridden regions? 바카라�I think when you바카라�re young, you are more willing to take risk to tell these important stories. There is also a drive in some people to want to be in the front line of a certain story바카라�it compels them to want to witness these stories firsthand. These people want to run towards a situation that others are rushing away from. Although I try to be careful and only take calculated risks. I have learned so much about human behaviour through my visits to conflict zones and observing people fighting for fundamental things like their family or country.바카라�

Some assignments proved near-fatal. 바카라�Once,바카라� recalls the photographer, 바카라�I was almost killed in Yugoslavia in 1989.바카라� McCurry had hired a tiny ultra-light plane to do aerials when the pilot swooped down to the surface of the lake, so close that it made his heart sink.

(A tailor wades through monsoonal waters in Porbundar, Gujarat. Photo: Neeta Lal)

바카라�The pilot was trying to show off, I suppose. It was too late and the wheels got caught in the water.  As soon as propeller hit the water, it was destroyed and the plane flipped upside down, trapping us. The plane sank into the icy lake,바카라� says McCurry. 바카라�I was stuck in an open cockpit by a makeshift seatbelt and, when I realised I was about to die, my instincts kicked in and I slid down underneath the seatbelt and made it out to the surface. The pilot was fine and never even tried to help me. It was bizarre!바카라�  

Does the photographer feel that the current era바카라�defined by less risk-taking, iPhone wielders and digital  technology바카라�is undermining the romance of old-style photography? 바카라�Right now,바카라� says McCurry, 바카라�I use a Nikon D850. But the camera you use isn바카라�t important. That being said, digital photography has come a very long way and I find it to be superior to film바카라�it is more flexible and you can work in lower light. I have used different film and digital cameras over my career, but I try to carry a minimal amount of equipment, one or two lenses, to avoid drawing attention.바카라�

Ever the globetrotter, McCurry says he바카라�s currently exploring the world 바카라�with my wonderful wife Andie, and our beautiful daughter Lucia! Work too, is vital, of course. So, after Moscow, he is off for a show to Paris (바카라�Trains de Vie바카라� on view until July 26) and then 바카라�Faith and Prayer바카라� (July 28 in Tuttlingen, Germany). He is also collaborating with his sister, Bonnie V바카라�Soske, on an extensive biography 바카라�A Life In Picture바카라� that will be published fall 2018.  

The camera, as he said, truly continues to be his passport.

(Neeta Lal is a Delhi-based journalist.)