Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry's many travels around the world have brought us unforgettable images from places like India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. His most famous image is the portrait called "Afghan Girl, Pakistan", one of the world's most recognised photographs since it appeared on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in June 1985.
His image, "Boy in Mid-Flight, Jodhpur, India, 2007", was taken in one of the winding alleys that make up the city of Jodhpur. McCurry has photographed the famous blue city on several occasions, colourful and mysterious subjects. The blue buildings of Jodhpur are often associated with Lord Shiva (the lord of divine energy) and his followers, the Brahmins, who consider the colour sacred. Some theories attribute the blue colour to the presence of copper sulphate in the original white paint of the buildings, or to the indigo trade around Jodhpur in colonial times. In McCurry's photograph, the blue walls are covered in red handprints, which are often placed after animals have been sacrificed during religious ceremonies and are believed to ward off evil spirits. Although the exact reason for Jodhpur's blue colour is still unclear, it provides a stunning backdrop to McCurry's images. This particular motif has been linked to one of the most iconic images in the history of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson's 1932 image of a man jumping between pools of water behind the Gare St Lazare in Paris. A nod from McCurry to Cartier-Bresson, who coined the term "Images à la sauvette" also known as "The Decisive Moment" i.e. the art of capturing the moment. In the image of the fleeing boy, McCurry's timing and composition are perfect. The diagonal perspective gives the impression that the walls are about to fall on him. Like a superhero, the boy is fleeing so fast that he appears to be completely lifted off the ground. Where is he going?

Steve McCurry has won some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal. He was recently awarded the Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal for Lifetime Achievement and in 2019 McCurry was elected to the International Photography Hall of Fame.