Christmas 2001

My son, who works in Manhattan, sent me the MAGNUM photo book for Christmas. He said that it is certainly not a joyful book for this joyful season but it is indeed a treasure of important images. 

Sid Harrison
27 December 2001

MAGNUM WESITE

One of the participating MAGNUM photograpers is Steve McCurry. You may recognize some of his work.
 

Photo of young Afghan girl by Steve McCurry. Image was part of the June 1985 edition of National Geographic on Afghanistan

The following is a bio of Steve McCurry copied from the MAGNUM website

American, b.1950

Born in Philadelphia, McCurry graduated Cum Laude from the College of Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. After working at a newspaper for two years, he left for India to freelance. 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".

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 Capra Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise.

He is the recipient of numerous awards which include Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded in 1984 by the National Press Photographers Association. This was the same year in which he won an unprecedented four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. He won the Olivier Rebbot Memorial Award twice.

McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq war, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, and the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. His focus is on the human consequences of war.

Recently, McCurry has covered Angkor Wat, Yemen, Kashmir, India's fiftieth anniversary of its independence, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Bombay.