{"id":38177,"date":"2025-08-01T19:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T19:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38177\/"},"modified":"2025-08-01T19:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T19:22:12","slug":"why-veteran-photographer-steve-mccurry-still-believes-in-the-power-of-the-image-afghan-girl-leica-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/38177\/","title":{"rendered":"Why veteran photographer Steve McCurry still believes in the power of the image; Afghan girl; Leica Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1984, McCurry documented people living in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp; the image of Gula was subsequently published on the cover of National Geographic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfghans were desperate to have their stories told because they were being overwhelmed by the Russians and were desperate to get their story out,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Al<\/p>\n

Al Ahmadi, Kuwait, 1991.Credit: Steve McCurry<\/p>\n

Two decades later, in 2002, he pictured her again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all curious about who she was and what happened to her. And then, of course, once we found her, we tried to help her every way we could. That was a long saga.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sharbat<\/p>\n

Sharbat Gula in the famous Steve McCurry photograph.Credit: Steve McCurry<\/p>\n

Asked about the ethics of photography, McCurry suggests it comes down to whether you care about the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the answer is yes, then how the hell did you learn about that? Did you rely on your government to learn that? Probably not \u2013 there was probably some journalist who put their ass on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone needs to respect each other \u2013 I think that starts and ends the conversation. If you point your camera up someone\u2019s nose and it pisses them off, that\u2019s probably not a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges, the 75-year-old says he never feels like giving up, \u201cnever for even a nanosecond\u201d.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cI love it too much. It would be like saying to your partner or your best friend: \u2018Ever thought about breaking up?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Conversation: A Photographic Dialogue Between Steve McCurry and Jessie Brinkman Evans is at Leica Gallery Melbourne, 267 Little Collins St, from August 1; and Leica Gallery Sydney, level 2, QVB, 455 George St, from August 9.<\/p>\n

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1984, McCurry documented people living in the Nasir Bagh refugee camp; the image of Gula was subsequently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-38177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}