Photography: Looking Back at The World's Most Famous Photo
For over 40-years, Steve Curry has worked in some of the world's biggest war zones and when he took the world's most famous photo three decades ago, he never knew it would speak to people up to this day.
Captioned "Afghan Girl," the photo is a close-up head shot of a girl named Sharbat Gula, who back then lived at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan. Sharbat sports the most tantalizing eyes ever caught on camera. While some people find the image strikingly beautiful, mostly because of Sharbat's green-blue eyes, a lot of people find it disturbing in the sense that it speaks of the fear, anger, weariness, and pain etched on her life by the war.
In an interview with CNN last year, McCurry talked with excitement about his iconic photograph that became the National Geographic's cover then and marked the new era of photography.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"I knew she had an incredible look, a penetrating gaze," McCurry said, noting that back then, there were no digital cameras and things happen in the battlefield. The film could be tampered and thus, the image's quality might be spoiled. "When I developed the picture, I knew it was special," he recalled.
The image particularly took the attention of not only locals but also leaders and organizations around the world who are weary of the war. The photo was taken in 1984 and up to this day, it continues to speak of the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Another image that made McCurry prominent in the industry was a photo taken in 1991, when Saddam Hussein blew up numerous oil wells. The photo featured silhouettes of camels as they walk across fields of fire during the first Gulf War in Kuwait.
Early this year, McCurry went to Singapore to open an exhibit featuring some of his most treasured photographs during his numerous travels around the world. When asked if he was tired about the Afghan girl, he said, "I don't get tired of talking about the Afghan girl," as reported by Channel News Asia.
For McCurry, places and landscapes are some of the most beautiful images but the best photos are those that tell the stories of people and their lives.
