Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry, recognized universally as one of today's finest image makers, has won many top awards including the NPPA's Magazine Photographer of the Year, four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest, the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad and two Olivier Rebbot Memorial Awards.

McCurry, best known for his evocative color photography, captures the essence of human struggle and joy in the finest documentary tradition. It was in India that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life. "If you wait," he realized, "people would forget your camera and the soul would drift up into view."

A member of Magnum Photos since 1986, McCurry has searched and found unforgettable moments, creating images that have become modern icons. His career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes, images which would be published around the world as among the first to show the conflict there. His coverage won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise.

McCurry's work has been featured in every major magazine in the world and frequently appears in National Geographic magazine with recent articles on Tibet, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia. McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq war, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, and continuing coverage of Afghanistan.

McCurry is driven by an innate curiosity and sense of wonder about the world and everyone in it. He has an uncanny ability to cross boundaries of language and culture to capture stories of human experience. "Most of my images are grounded in people, and I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that you could call the human condition."

A high point of his career was the rediscovery of the previously unidentified Afghan refugee girl which many have described as the most recognizable photograph in the world today. When he finally located Sharbat Gula after almost two decades, he said, "Her skin is weathered; there are wrinkles now, but she is as striking as she was all those years ago."

For more information on Steve McCurry visit his website.