"For me, the portraits in this book speak a desire for human connection; a desire so strong that people who know they will never see me again open themselves to the camera, all in the hope that at the other end someone else will be watching – someone who will laugh or suffer with them."
From: "Portraits"
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We have all probably seen her picture. First published in June 1985 as the cover photograph for National Geographic magazine, her beautiful—yet haunting—eyes fix on us. Disheveled hair frames her life-weary face. Cloth wraps round her, covering her head and upper body, ragged holes worn through, telling us these eyes have seen too much. No smile, no frown, no emotion visible. Just...those...eyes...
Steve McCurry graduated cum laude from Penn State University in the early 1970s. After working briefly as a newspaper photographer, he gambled on a career as a freelance photographer, traveling to India in 1978. His first success was the work he brought back from a clandestine journey into strife-torn Afghanistan in the years before the Soviet invasion. Specializing in war-torn areas of the world, McCurry has traveled the world from Cambodia to Iraq to Yugoslavia. He has several published book and has been a frequent contributor to many magazines, including National Geographic.
The quote that leads this review reflects the heart and soul of McCurry's work. He finds a person that he thinks has something unique and he will spend enough time with that person until he finds, in his words, "...the right moment." As he says in the brief introduction to this collection, there is "...no second chance..." once he leaves. Unlike a writer, there is no chance to edit.
— Contents —
In the 200-plus photographs that fill this book, it is the portraits of the children that catch my eye, my emotions. Many of the photos of the adults are richly ornate, decorated for some purpose in their life, either by garb, by possessions, by tattoos, or by the way they have learned to pose their body.
But the children are, for the most part, pure and unadorned. Some are obviously loved and protected. Others appear to be more vulnerable. But all share the exuberance of youth, the joy of the moment, the anticipation of the future that youth brings to the soul.
This is not a book of glamour, though some pictures are of costumed and bejeweled individuals. This is not a book of portraits of rich and famous white people. (Although there is one famous, elegant white guy.) This is a book of portraits of 'people of color', the citizens of the Third World. People surviving. The few pictures of young white people here in the US are almost all portraits of individuals screaming for attention with their tattoos, animals, and hair styles. It is almost embarrassing.
There are over 200 portraits in this book. Printed on glossy, heavyweight, large postcard-size pages each portrait is on the right with a blank white page on the left. Blank except for a small line at the bottom identifying location and year the portrait was taken. This is a powerful format which invites the reader to draw his own conclusions from what he/she sees. Unencumbered by the interpretations, the words, the thoughts of others.
What this reader brings from reading this book, viewing these pictures is a sense of people surviving, taking life's best shot and still hanging on. I get no sense of surrender, no sense of pity, either sought by the photographed individual or felt by me viewing them. Instead, I bring away a sense of struggle, overcoming long odds, an easy truce with the individual's position in life. Because they know no other way of life, the life they have seems to fill them with a richness that many of us more spoiled 'citizens of the world' fail to show in our eyes.
— The Bottom Line —
This is not a book you read. You experience it. Steve McCurry has opened a window into souls of the individuals photographed and included in this volume. You will sense their strength and their acceptance of—and yes, pride in—the life they lead. And you will wonder what became of the children?
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"Just the facts, ma'am"
Title: "Portraits"
Publisher: Phaidon Press Limited
Copyright: 1999 / Photographs © Steve McCurry
Pages: 512, Hardcover
ISBN #: 0-7148-3839-X
Ages recommended: 12 and up
Reference website:
http://www.stevemccurry.com
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/storyA_story.html
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