Advanced Typography Final / Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs by Michelle Head

UNTOLD

THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

STEVE MCCURRY Edited by Michelle Head

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STEVE MCCURRY BIO

FOREWORD

THE AFGHAN GIRL

AFTER THE STORM

SEPTEMBER 11 TH

AWARDS, EXHIBITIONS

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA

INDEX

INDIA BY RAIL

TEMPLES OF ANGKOR

THE TIBETANS

STEVE MCCURRY FE B RUA RY 24, 1950 / AME RICAN PHOTOJOURNALIST

“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe and my camera is my passport.” Steve McCurry has been a one of the most

Since then, McCurry has gone on to create

iconic voices in contemporary photography

stunning images over six continents and

for more than 30 years, with scores of maga-

countless countries. His work spans conflicts,

zine and book covers, over a dozen books,

vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and

and countless exhibitions around the world

contemporary culture alike — yet always retains

to his name.

the human element that made his celebrated

Born in a suburb of Philadelphia; McCurry studied film at Penn State University, before going on to work for a local newspaper. After several years of freelance work, McCurry made his first of what would become many trips to India.

image of the Afghan Girl such a powerful image. McCurry has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, National Press Photographers Award, and an unprecedented 4 first prize awards from the World Press Photo contest, to name a few.

McCurry brought the world the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan, putting a human face to the issue on every masthead.

STEVE MCCURRY BIOGRAPHY

FOREWORD FLYING LOW OVER LAKE BLED, on assignment in Slovenia in February 1989, the pilot took the plane dangerously close to the water’s surface. The wheels caught and we went down, the propellar shattering as we hit the water. The plane flipped, and the fuselage began to sink in the icy lake. My seat belt was stuck, but an instinct for self preservation kicked in and I was able to wrestle free. The pilot and I swam under the aircraft to the surface. My camera and bag are still 20 metres (65 feet) down. Of course, I’ve lost more than one camera over thirty years as a photographer, but despite countless close shaves and one or two disasters, nothing has diminished my passion for photography and travel — sometimes in places of overriding beauty, sometimes in places I’d like to forget. And nothing has dented my faith in the human spirit or in unexpected human kindness. From the fisherman who dragged us from the freezing Lake Bled to the stranger who hauled me to shore in Bombay when I was attacked off Chowpatty Beach during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in 1993, I have had the good fortune to meet compassionate and welcoming people throughout my travels; and the kindest were often those who lived in the harshest of conditions. Compelling photography doesn’t require exotic travel, but I needed to wander and explore. The was a lesson I learned early: it all started in 1978, the year that I left my job as a staff photographer at a newspaper in Philadelphia to buy a couple of hundred rolls of film and a one-way plane ticket to India. A year later, in 1979, I secretly crossed the border into Afghanistan with the mujahideen, carrying little more than my cameras and a Swiss Army knife. I emerged months later with a reservoir of experiences that stands me in good stead even today.

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Each trip, each assignment, every place and person I’ve experienced and every photograph I’ve taken represents a step on the trail from my first experiences to the present day. The camera provides a record of a particular place and time, and every photograph I make is meant to stand on its own as a memorable image, but at the same time each one forms part of a wider story. This book presents some of the stories I have observed, others that I have sought out, and still others that leapt out at me when I least expected it. I have made thousands of photographs over the course of my career, most of which have never been published, but alongside this archive is another, equally extensive store of non-photographic material. I have saved countless objects and ephemera — from hand coloured studio portraits in Kabul and journals of train rides across India, to press passes in Iraq and land mine warnings from Cambodia. A large number are presented here for the first time. This book is a record of these experiences, but also the untold stories behind them. It is a tribute to the places I’ve been, the things I’ve seen and the people I’ve known.

Steve McCurry

FOREWORD

INDIA BY RAIL 1983 / BA N G L A DE S H, IND IA, PAKIS TAN

Steve McCurry spent more than two years

Both an ageing relic of British rule and an

crossing the subcontinent by rail, creating

essential part of the nervous system of modern

an intimate portrait of transport network

India, the epic Indian rail system stretches

that serves over a billion people, and timeless

from the Khyber Pass to Bangladesh, from

images of the individuals who depend on it.

the Himalayas to Kerala.

PAKISTAN TO BANGLADESH In 1983, the time was right for McCurry to make his dream a reality, and photograph the moveable city that is the train system of South Asia — a network that carries an estimated 30 million passengers a day. The story that McCurry proposed to create would entail a five month trip — August through December — that would take him from the ancient Khyber Pass in Pakistan across northern India to Chittagong in Bangladesh, travelling southeast along the network of interconnecting train lines that had been established by the British during colonial rule. ‘Air travel is expensive for most Indians, but trains are used by everyone,’ McCurry says. ‘So the trains and stations are always heaving with people, always crowded.’ From his earliest days on the subcontinent, the cacophony of noise, colours and smells that accompanied the throngs of Indian travellers were hugely attractive to him. In each new city he visited, his first point of call was always the main railway station, which he would start to explore by simply wandering around the platforms. ‘Each time a train rolled in, I would try to capture the incredible swirl of life there, all the time stepping over people camped out on the platforms, and working my way around mountains of luggage.’

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Pages from McCurry’s “India by Rail” journal, 1983. Facing Page: Indian rail tickets, 1983.

“30 MILLION PASSENGERS A DAY.” 12

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

The constantly changing scenes of daily life played out in the stations were a photographer’s dream. ‘India’s stations are a microcosm of the country. You see life being lived out right in front of you. Everything is on view — eating, sleeping, washing, caring for children, conducting business. Chair wallahs sell tea, cows and monkeys forage for food, people compete for tickets — the noise of the crowds is like an assault. And lots of small businessmen work in and around the stations. Someone may be repairing shoes, another might be cutting hair or shaving someone. Many of the barbers who operate in stations have just a chair and a dish with a little water in it, very simple.’ In one image, taken on the platform of Peshawar Cantonment station, a barber’s customer sits in a relaxed pose while being shaved, his face thickly lathered in foam and his gun casually displayed. It is instances such as this, in which there is no distinction between public and private, that so attracted McCurry to India and Pakistan. ‘The poor, and even the not so poor, tend to live their lives out on the street,’ he says. ‘Sometimes it’s shocking, but it’s always interesting.’

Left: Riding the Indian Railway, Agra, India, 1983. Right: Barber at the train station, Peshawar, Pakistan, 1983. Opposite: Passengers board a train at Agra Fort Station, Agra, India, 1983

INDIA BY RAIL

Children diving into the river along the Dhaka to Chittagong rail line, Bangladesh, 1983. Right: A shunting operation underway near the Taj Mahal, Agra, India, 1983

In many ways, the theme of movement is a constant throughout

in Agra, checking the local timetables for the exact moment at

McCurry’s oeuvre. Whether it is a child disappearing around

which the steam train would be stretched across the blackened

a corner, people walking along a train track, or someone

iron bridge, with men and women washing clothes along the

peering through a carriage window as the train pulls away,

banks of the river. Later, when crossing a bridge on the Dhaka

he is drawn to scenes in motion. It is this quality of chance

Chittagong line in Bangladesh, he got off the train to shoot a

in his pictures — the sense that things are delicately positioned

similar photograph of young boys swimming and diving into

at the point of change — that informs McCurry’s approach

the water, with the train slowly crossing the bridge behind

to many of his projects. ‘You take a trip, you take notes, you

them. It was in Bangladesh also that he recorded the torrents

observe,’ he explains. ‘At first you don’t see anything and you

of water that engulf streets and fields during the monsoon.

start to worry...but as time goes on, things reveal themselves.

During the rains, the train tracks are sometimes the only lands

As the journey progresses you begin to pick up the thythms of

that remain above the floods, and many villagers relocate to the

a place, and suddenly you see things that were invisible before.’

sides of the tracks until the waters subside. Images such as this

McCurry’s habit of keeping careful notes as he travelled some-

bring together in a single frame serveral of the elements that

times resulted in wonderfully serendipitous paitings of images

shape Indian life.

separated by time and space. He captured the Yamuna River

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

THE AFGHAN GIRL 1984-2003 / A F GHANIS TAN, PAKIS TAN

In 1984, with the Soviet war in Afghanistan

Peshawar, he captured an image that would

raging, refugee camps set up along the

come to define a story, a conflict and a people.

Afghan-Pakistan border were quickly filling.

And Sharbat Gulaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s iconic portrait was more

As increasing numbers of the displaced arrived,

than just the record of the moment: nineteen

Steve McCurry was asked to explore and

years later, McCurry would take an incredible

document these refugee settlements. In one

journey to find her again.

makeshift girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; classroom in a camp near

Few people know the name of Sharbat Gula, yet her image is instantly familiar. Steve McCurry’s photograph of the young refugee, taken years before even he learned the name of his subject, came to sum up the tragedy of Afghanistan and the dignity of its people in the face of war and exile. The image, known simply as The Afghan Girl, eventually became the most recognized photograph in the history of National Geographic magazine, after it appeared on the cover in June 1985. Steve McCurry’s relationship with Afghanistan is densely interwoven with his career as a photographer. In 1979, the 29-year-old met two mujahideen fighters in northern Pakistan and secretly accompanied them across the border to photograph the civil war developing in Afghanistan between insurgents and the Soviet supported government in Kabul. The images that emerged launched his career as documentary photographer, and subsequent trips to the Afghan war zone resulted in his being awarded, in 1980, the Robert Capa Gold Medal for best photographic reporting. By 1982, the conflict was routine headline news, and McCurry was firmly established in many editor’s minds as the photographer of choice to cover it. Then in 1984, while he was travelling across the subcontinent working on projects covering the monsoon and the Indian railways, he was approached by National Geographic magazine with an assignment to photograph a feature article exploring the increasing numbers of refugee camps that had grown up along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Later that year he journeyed to the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, and from August to November explored many of the 30 or so refugee

Refugee camp, Afghan border, 1984

camps that had been set up just outside Peshawar.

THE AFGHAN GIRL

18 November 1984

McCurry’s certificate of film content, Press Information Department, Government of Pakistan,

“SHE HAD AN INTENSE, HAUNTED LOOK”

Opposite page Left: Sharbat Gula, the Afghan Girl, in Nasir Bagh refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, 1984 Right: Cover from National Geographic, vol. 167, no. 6, June 1985

As McCurry walked around the Nasir Bagh refugee camp,

what school children do all over the world — running around,

he heard young voices coming from a tent and realized it

making noise and stirring up a lot of dust. But in that brief

was being used as a girls’ school, with a class in progress. He

moment when I photographed Gula I didn’t hear the noise or see

peered in and asked the teacher if he might be allowed to

the other kids. It was very powerful.” The connection was a

observe and take some pictures. She agreed. As he surveyed the

fleeting one. “I guess she was as curious about me as I was about

group of students he noticed off in a corner one particular child

her, because she had probably never seen a camera. After a few

with piercing eyes. “I spotted this young girl, whose name

moments she got up and walked away, but for an instant every-

I learned years later was Sharbat Gula. She had an intense,

thing was right — the light, the background, the expression

haunted look, a really penetrating gaze — and yet was only

in her eyes.”

about twelve years old. She was very shy, and I thought if I photographed other children first she would be more likely to agree because at some point she wouldn’t want to be left out.” McCurry took pictures of two girls, waiting for the portrait he was really interested in. “There must have been about fifteen girls there. They were all very young, and they were doing

There are a number of images in the history of photography that have caught the public imagination and become something more than just the record of the moment. These photographs connect with the viewer in a deeply emotional way and have the ability to keep doing so with each new generation.

THE AFGHAN GIRL

Inspecting the image of Sharbat Gula from 1984, in the hope of identi-

Cover from National Geographic, vol.201, no.4, April 2002,

fying her, Nasir Bagh, Peshawar, Pakistan, 2002. Opposite: Sharbat Gula

featuring McCurry’s image of Sharbat Gula in 2002.

with her one-year old daughter, Peshawar, Pakistan, 2002.

For millions, The Afghan Girl represents the suffering of children in war and the consequences of conflict on ordinary people; but at the same time it is an image of resilient beauty, radiating out of the appalling conditions in which she has found herself. There is a subtle mixture of strength and vulnerability about the portrait. In one sense, a child returns McCurry’s gaze; she appears almost bewildered at having her picture taken. As McCurry says, “Her exact emotions in this picture have always been a bit of a mystery, and you could read the portrait in numerous ways.” It is that multiplicity of readings — a quality of all iconic works — that sustains repeated viewings, each time offering the viewer something new. It is no surprise that the portrait has been referred to as a ‘modern Mona Lisa.’ Seventeen years after his visit to the refugee camps, McCurry returned with a National Geographic Television film crew to some of the locations he had photographed for the 1985 article, with the idea of trying to track down the Afghan Girl. The terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, and the invasion of Afghanistan the following month, had brought renewed tension to the region, but in January 2002, after months of gathering information and arranging contacts, McCurry and the team had arrived in Pakitan. The refugee camp near Peshawar where McCurry had photographed Sharbat Gula was due to be demolished, and they realized they had begun their search just in time.

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

AFTER THE STORM 1991 / I R AQ, K UWAIT, SAU D I ARAB IA

Early in 1990, Steve McCurry travelled to

black sand and smoke-filled skies, McCurry

Kuwait as a witness to the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ongoing

documented an ecological catastrophe. His

destruction as the centre of a war-zone and

terrifying stark images highlight the envi-

its long-term environmental devastation. As

ronmental and social consequences of the Gulf

the US-led Operation Desert Storm cleared

War, consequences that are still being felt.

a way through the deadly trail of blazing fires,

A shepherd boy sits in a burnt out car, Kuwait, 1991; Previous page: Struggling camels silhouetted against the oil-fire, al-Ahmadi oil field, Kuwait, 1991.

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UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

In early 1991, Steve McCurry was on assignment in what was arguably the most horrific place on earth at the time: he was documenting the environmental destruction suffered by Kuwait during the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990, driven by his anger at the Arab League’s, and particularly Kuwait’s, refusal to cut oil production in order to raise prices. Western troops were sent to the region shortly thereafter in support of Operation Desert Shield (a campaign to stop Saddam from pushing on into Saudi Arabia). When Saddam ignored a United Nations ultimatum to withdraw voluntarily, the US-led Operation Desert Storm was launched two days later, on 17 January 1991. McCurry was commissioned by National Geographic in December 1990 to photograph the massive environmental catastrophe rumored to have been caused in Kuwait by the Iraqi destruction of hundreds of oil wells. He travelled to the border of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to join US troops a few weeks later. ‘I was following my nose, just trying to tell the story. I wanted to look at the situation as a whole and show the impact of the war on the landscape and on the creatures that lived there.’

Starving lions lie abandoned in their cage at the Kuwait City zoo, Kuwait, 1991. Below: Cormorant in an oil spill off the coast of Saudi Arabia, 1991.

McCurry was embedded with the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade, which was attached to the Army’s VII Corps as part of the third wave of the ground offensive. Their task was to push north from the Saudi border and then east to cut off Iraqi troops and isolate the Kuwait battlefield. ‘I was amazed by the sheer scale of the campaign. I stared at my own column of tanks, trucks and other support vehicles stretching as far as I could see front and back, with identical lines on either side from horizon to horizon. Once in a while we stopped, and our big guns launched a rain of fire ahead of our advancing columns to soften up the enemy.’ At one point while with the VII Corps, his driver decided to switch columns, moving to an adjacent line of military vehicles. ‘Not a good idea,’ McCurry observes. ‘We found ourselves trying to manoeuvre through a bumper crop of unexploded “bomblets” from allied cluster bombs. I stayed in the back seat of the jeep, figuring that if the front end blew up, I’d have an extra two feet of space. I also sat on my flak jacket.’ When McCurry finally arrived in Kuwait City, it resembled a vision of hell. ‘It didn’t seem real, a modern city in such a state of destruction. It looked like a movie set, a scene at the end of the world.’ He stayed in the city’s International Sheraton Hotel, once known for its luxury. Like much of Kuwait City, the building had been ransacked by retreating Iraqi forces, and now the stench of rotting rubish around it permeated the air. In the last few months of 1990 the occupying soldiers had cleared entire buildings of their residents, then stripped the structures of everything they could, even pulling the wiring out of the walls. ‘I was in the region for a couple of months and I stayed at the Sheraton for part of that, in a room on the fourth floor. The upper floors were empty, because no one wanted to have to walk up eight, ten or fifteen floors, especially journalists — they took over the first floor. The place had been all but demolished. The toilets didn’t work. There was no running water. The Iraqis had stolen the TVs, the doorknobs, anything they could. There must have been a lot of envy of Kuwait’s wealth, along with frustration and resentment. These soldiers were being chased out, so they were determined to destroy whatever they could on their way. But we still had to pay for the room!’ Around the city, McCurry was shocked by the level of destruction. He drove up the infamous Highway 80, the main raod out of Kuwait towards Iraq. Heavily bombed by US air and ground forces, the road became known as the ‘Highway of Death’, on which the retreating Iraqis were easy targets.

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Dead soldier lying coated in oil, al-Ahmadi oil field, Kuwait, 1991.

“THE MOST HORRIFIC PLACE ON EARTH.” AFTER THE STORM

In the deserts surrounding Kuwait City, McCurry found a landscape that had been transformed beyond all recogintion from the golden sands he had first witnessed while on Iraqi soil with US troops. ‘The sand was black. As we drove or walked we picked up oil on our tires and our shoes, leaving behind footprints and tire tracks where the sand underneath was exposed.’ The viscous oily residue that had settled on the surface of the desert was a mixture of sand, oil and soot known as ‘tarcrete’. In one of his most striking pictures from this assignment, McCurry stopped his vehicle to photograph parallel tire tracks receding into the distance; a thich, toxic cloud of oily smoke hangs on White tire tracks left in the oil-coated sand, al-Ahmadi oil field, Kuwait, 1991;

the near horizon, illuminated by the fires of the burning wells (see top left). The image speaks of his instinctive perception of the formal qualities of a scene, but also demonstrates McCurry’s ability to communicate something of the experience he faced. Even during the middle of the day, he recalls that “the darkness was caused by the burning oil wells was like a moonless night. The exposure on my camera was about a quarter of a second on f2.8.” The photographs show a black, hellish landscape, “but they don’t convey the fine mist of oil that hung in the air and coated my cameras, or the deafening roar of the burning wells. Nor do they show the unexploded bombs and mines that dotted the desert. I’ll never forget the momemnt I got out of the car to

Steve McCurry is photographed in the al-Ahmadi oil fields, Kuwait, 1991;

stretch my legs and caught a glimpse of an allied lawn-dart mine behind the vehicle with out tire tracks running right over it!” Night and day, the ruined landscape was bathed in an eerie twilight created by the burning oil field. Black clouds billowed across the sky, blocking out the sun and chilling the air. Fierce jets of fire shot hundreds of feet into the air, spiralling and twisting in the wind. The heat from the burning wells was intense, and in locations where they were less than a mile apart, temperatures soared to the point at which the desert sand melted, turning to glass.

Vehicles burning in an oil field, al-Ahmadi oil field, Kuwait, 1991; Opposite page: Portrait of a Saddam Hussein in a broken frame, Kuwait, 1991

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Above Left: Portrait of a Saddam Hussein in a broken frame, Kuwait, 1991; Above Right: A charred hand of a dead solider rises above the sand, Kuwait, 1991

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

TEMPLES OF ANGKOR 1989-2009 / CA M B OD IA

The great Cambodian religious complex of

their flashes of human presence, remind us that

Angkor, famed capital of the ancient Khmer

its temples, still active as Buddhist pilgrimage

empire, was for centuries a crucible of Hindu,

sites, now face modern pressures â&#x20AC;&#x201D; tourists,

Buddhist and native Khmer culture; but for

looters, bandits, environmental decay and the

Steve McCurry, Angkor is not an archaeological

destruction wrought by decades of war and

site but a living monument. His images, with

civil strife.

Steve McCurry first visited the temples of Angkor in

Angkor had been the capital of the Khmer rulers of the

1989. It was not his initial trip to Cambodia — he had

region from the ninth until the mid-fifteenth centuries.

traveled there a number of times since the Vietnam-

It expanded as each successive monarch built its own

ese had overthrown the murderous rule of the Khmer

stone temples, surrounded by walls, moats and reser-

Rouge in 1979 — but on this visit he had been assigned

voirs laid out according to the cosmological principles

by The New York Times Magazine to document fellow

of either Buddhism or Hinduism, depending on the

photojournalist Dith Pran’s return to his homeland.

faith of the individual ruler. The main temple, Angkor

Dith’s experiences during Pol Pot and the Khmer

Wat, was built around 1125 and dedicated to the Hindu

Rouge’s disastrous programme of social reform had

god Vishnu before becoming a Buddhist shrine in the

been portrayed in the Oscar-winning film The Killing

late thirteenth century. ‘I visited Angkor with Pran,’

Fields (1984), and in 1989, now living in New York, he

McCurry recalls. ‘It was an astonishing place, vast and

had been invited to Cambodia to attend the country’s

in many areas empty of people. We found temples built

premiere of the film and to accompany members of

a thousand years ago that were completely enveloped

a human-rights organization, the Cambodian Docu-

by jungle. There were so many beautiful carvings and

mentation Commission. McCurry traveled with him

sculptures, but they’re being lost either through lotting

to Phnom Penh and to his hometown of Siem Reap,

or through the natural encroachment of the jungle.

near the ruined city and temples of Angkor. He was

The roots of the strangler figs invade the crumbling

overwhelmed by what he saw. ‘I could only compare it

stonework, and when the trees eventually die they crash

to the wonder of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, or Machu

down into the buildings, doing immense damage.’

Picchu in Peru. It’s difficult to comprehend the majesty of the place. Angkor contains simply some of the most spectacular ancient temples on earth.’

Dith Pran at the memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 1989

TEMPLES OF ANGKOR

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After his visit to the site with Dith, McCurry returned several times to Cambodia before deciding to do a photo story on the Angkor temples in 1997. Cambodia’s fortunes had improved in the two decades since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and the magnificent, crumbling ruins at Angkor had begun to replace images of Pol Pot’s regime in the world’s imagination. Tourists were returning to the country, and Angkor Wat in particular was vibrantly alivewith visiting families, pilgrims and orange-robed Buddhist monks. The days spend photographing the site soon developed a pleasing pattern. ‘The sun rose about six o’clock, so I got up at 5:00a.m. and the driver and translator arrived at 5:30. Driving out to Angkor at dawn, I would have a rough idea of what I was going to shoot, but I was always ready to adapt to what we found as we wandered. It was the monsoon season, so the days were mostly cloudy, with a soft light. After a break for lunch, we’d return to the site around three and spend the last three hours of daylight taking pictures. The shoot had a wonderful rhythm to it.’ In their use of color and form, McCurry’s images of Angkor are works of deep subtlety and control. Some of the most striking photographs are those that reveal the interweaving of nature and the temples, as pictures in McCurry’s shot of the Ta Prohm temple gripped by serpentine roots of a giant banyan tree (see opposite page). Overshadowed by the jungle, the temple appears to be at the bottom of a well, an occasional shaft of light illuminating the silvery roots and broken fragments of stone scattered across the temple floor. The darkness of the scene is punctuated by the orange robes of two monks emerging from the temple. The image captures one of the distinctive strands in McCurry’s oeuvre — the relationship between human civilization and nature.

Opposite page: Monks at the Ta Promh temple, Angkor, Cambodia, 1998; P.38: Shadow play, Preah Khan temple, Angkor, Cambodia, 1999; P.39: Monks walking in the rain during a monsoon, Angkor, Cambodia, 1998 TEMPLES OF ANGKOR

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

TEMPLES OF ANGKOR

Parent transporting child in the traditional way, Angkor, Cambodia, 1999

A more positive human presence among the ancient temples also attracted McCurryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye. Beyond the architecture and the sculpture, he was drawn to those working and living within the spectacular setting, including a mother and child sleeping on a houseboat on Tonle Sap lake, near Angkor, or a man cutting wild lotus flowers from a reflecting pool that encircles the Angkor Wat temple, to use as offerings. His images of monks offer a serene contrast to the crumbing splendour that surrounds them, the rich orange robes of the monks highlighted by the slate grey of the temples and the deep green foliage of the jungle. In many ways there seems to be a natural balance between the Man cutting wild lotus flowers in front of Angkor Wat temple, Angkor, Cambodia, 1997

daily lives and religious philosophy of the monks, which often focuses on the transcience of life, and the air of impermanence that hangs over the crumbling complex of temples.

Monks sitting on a causeway that leads to Angkor Wat temple, Angkor, Cambodia, 1997

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UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

“IT WAS AN ASTONISHING PLACE...”

Mother and child sleeping on their houseboat on Tonle Sap lake, near Angkor, Cambodia, 1998

TEMPLES OF ANGKOR

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 2001 / N E W YO RK, U SA

The events of 11 September 2001 shook New

be at home in New York on that fateful day.

York City and reverberated around the world,

Witnessing the events from his apartment,

becoming the catalyst for a global political

he grabbed his cameras, started shooting and

shift. This harrowing attack on a uniquely

headed towards Ground Zero. The result was

urban scale was redeemed only by the heroic

some of the most iconic images to document

efforts of the first responders who attended to

that unforgettable time.

the emergency. Steve McCurry happened to

On an overcast Monday afternoon in 2001, Steve McCurry returned home to New York, having traveled for more than 30 hours from Tibet. The date was 10 September. He woke the next morning to clear blue skies and went downstairs to his office, in the same building as his apartment, on the north side of Washington Square Park. ‘You could see the World Trade Center from my office windows,’ McCurry recalls. ‘I was sorting through mail when my assistant’s mother telephoned and said, “Look our your window.”’ It was 9:10a.m.— just seven minutes after United Airlines flight 175 had crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and 24 minutes after American Airlines flight 11 had flown into the North Tower.

The World Trade Center as seen from the roof of McCurry’s studio building near Washington Square Park, New York, 11 September 2001; Page 42: An American flag flies over Ground Zero, New York, 11 September 2001

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

This page and opposite: The World Trade Center as seen from the roof of McCurry’s studio building near Washington Square Park, New York, 11 September 2001

Seeing the smoke billowing from the skyscrapers, McCurry grabbed a camera and raced to the top of his building. ‘The roof has an unobstructed view of all of downtown Manhattan, so I just started shooting.’ This was McCurry acting on instinct, doing what he has done throughout his career: intuitively capturing a moment in time. In one of the first images made on that day, people are gathered around the Washington Square Arch, looking south to the World Trade Center. They appear as small dots on the ground, an ominous precursor of the firefighters and emergency crews that would soon surround the stricken buildings. Throughout these first images of the September 11 attacks, the bright, cloudless skies form an incongruous backdrop to the two towers, as black smoke drifts east across the harbour towards Brooklyn and beyond. McCurry continued to photograph from the roof for 40 minutes, and then the unimaginable happened. At 9:59a.m., just under

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

an hour since the plane had struck, the South Tower collapsed.

death actually happening and embalm it for all time.’ McCurry’s

Half an hour later, the North Tower imploded. ‘Like every-

images do just that. In a swift succession of shots he freezes the

one, I was in a state of disbelief when the towers fell. It simply

disintegration of the towers and the chilling moments when so

wasn’t possible.’ For McCurry the towers had been a common

many died. The final picture he took as the towers collapsed

sight, part of his everyday world when in New York, and his

shows ash wrapping the skyscrapers in a cocoon. People who

affection for the skyscrapers was felt by many. ‘In Greenwich

had been watching from a few blocks away began to flee north

Village, you saw them constantly; they were a part of your life.

as clouds of dust billowed through the streets. McCurry headed

To have them crumble was like ripping your heart out. It was

south. ‘When you’re faced with something like this, you just

absolutely unbelievable to see them just collapse into nothing,

have to put your emotions aside, or try to, so you can do your

especially knowing how many people there must have been in

work without being completely debilitated. You have to let your

the buildings.’

experience take over.’ He and his assistant set out for what was

When faced with an image of immense violence, what we see

soon to become known as Ground Zero.

is often only an imprint or impression of what has gone before, whether it is the wreck of a car crash, the outline of a body at a crime scene or photographs of bombed-out buildings. It is rare in the history of photography, as Susan Sontag put it, ‘to catch a

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

It took them an hour to walk the 30 blocks to the site, tramping

He photographed a firefighter walking through the twisted remains

around the backs of buildings, along alleyways and through

of the building (see page 50), with a mountain of warped and

apartment blocks. ‘I’ll never forget the fine dust and tons of

tangled steel, electric wires, girders and pipes looming above

paper floating around in the air. The police had already cor-

him. It was a surreal, alien landscape of the sort McCurry had

doned off the area, but we went down one side street and then

never encountered before, even with all his work in war zones.

another, and eventually we were able to make our way through

Emergency services from all corners of the city were beginning to

the police lines.’ At the World Trade Center Plaza, McCurry

set up triage areas for the wounded, but ‘they never came. Once

discovered a scene of chaos. ‘The destruction was total. It hadn’t

the buildings fell, there were virtually no survivors. Maybe one

stopped at the last thirty floors, or the last ten.There was only

or two out of the thousands of people who hadn’t been able to

a shell. You couldn’t believe your eyes.’

get out of the towers, but that was it.’

Opposite Page: Top row: copy paper scatters the streets of New York City, New York, 11 September 2001 Bottom: A magazine picturing President George W. Bush lies in ash, New York, 11 September 2001

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

“THERE WERE VIRTUALLY NO SURVIVORS.”

Left: A firefighter walks through the twisted remains of a building, New York, 11 September 2001 SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Desolate interior of the World Financial Center part of the destroyed World Trade Center complex, New York, 11 September 2001

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UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

A New York City firefighter scales a ladder, as seen through a broken window, New York, 11 September 2001

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

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In the hours following the collapse of the two skyscrapers, McCurry

beside a group of national guardsmen. It was dark and I was

was constantly told by police and firefighters to leave the area,

dressed mostly in khaki, so I blended in, and I had hidden my

but each time he doubled back and found another way to approach

cameras. Still, I was continually being told to leave. I probably

the buildings, despite the fire and the smoke that obscured

spent as much time avoiding getting ousted from the area as I

visibility. He was struck by how the police continued to search

did taking pictures.’

for survivors among the twisted, smoking stacks of metal and concrete. ‘It seemed so futile. These tiny human figures in this vast field of devastation, picking through the rubble.’

While the images McCurry obtained show the epic destruction wrought by two planes, they also communicate symbolically the lives lost and the fathomless grief of those affected. The

Despite growing exhaustion, he remained, shooting, until the

pictures are both subtly nuanced and graphically detailed doc-

evening. After dark, he headed home for a few hours’ sleep, but

uments of the consequences of violence, and like the photogra-

‘I had to go back again. I got up at three-thirty in the morning

pher, the viewer tries to understand the unimaginable in them.

and walked down the West Side Highway as far as the press

The images reflect McCurry’s habitual focus on the fallout of

pen. There were a couple of buildings nearby on fire. I crawled

aggression, the result of violence and how it shapes people’s

along a concrete barrier for about a hundred yards then cut

daily lives. They reveal something of the human capacity to

through a cyclone fence. On the other side I started walking

carry on when faced with the most desperate of circumstances.

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Left: A work crew member walks through the rubble of the World Trade Center collapse, New York, 11 September 2001; Right photos: First responders at the scene of the World Trade Center collapse, New York, 12 September 2001

Above: Work crews begin to clear the mountain of wreckage from the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, New York, 11 September 2001. Opposite page, clockwise from top: All the water being poured on the fires created small ponds. Most vehicles left behind were badly damaged; Ruined facade of One World Financial Center after the collapse of World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, New York, 11 September 2001; Firefighter scaling a ladder at Ground Zero, New York, 11 September 2001

As the sun came up over Ground Zero on 12 September, casting an ominous red hue across the scene, McCurry photographed crews of rescue workers gazing at the remains of the towers (see above). The image was taken close to where the South Tower came down. ‘The atmosphere was heavy,’ recalls McCurry, ‘I was trying to translate on to film what I was feeling — horror and loss. This was an entirely new level of evil.’ Towards the bottom right of the image a group of men stand on two fallen girders, and in the near distance, other men appear to be trying to put out a fire. Dwarfed by the mountains of rubble, the anonymous figures persist in the face of a seemingly hopeless task.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA 1978-2008 / B URMA, CAMB OD IA, IND IA, THAIL AND, TIBET

Buddhism is an important and deeply personal

years, McCurry’s pictures present a truly global

theme in Steve McCurry’s work as a photogra-

study of one of the world’s largest religions, as

pher, and his images of Buddhist rituals, devotees

well as an intimate document of some of human

and culture chart the faith’s spiritual influence

civilization’s most enduring ideas.

around the world. Spanning more than twenty

“HAPPINESS NEVER

Buddhist monk praying near reclining Buddha, Polonnarvwa, Sri Lanka, 1995; Previous Page: Monk at the Jokhang temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2001

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

DECREASES BY BEING SHARED” McCurry’s interest in Buddhism began when he was a teenager, when a close school friend introduced him to the philosophy. The idea for a photo story first emerged during his extended stay on the Indian subcontinent between 1978 and 1980 when he also visited Nepal, birthplace of Buddha; his interest would grow as he traveled to other Buddhist countries. “There is something deeply appealing about Buddhist countries,” he says, “I am endlessly intrigued by the way monks live, by the way Buddhist philosophy emphasizes compassion, as well as by the iconography. The ethics and the aesthetcis of Buddhism are melded in a unique way.” McCurry’s wide-ranging fascination with Buddhism has created an equally diverse body of work. While he has pictured objectively the pageantry and the distinctive visual trappings of Buddhism, it has been more important to him to capture the essential values and attitudes of the faith, and of the people who practice it. In a manner that has distinguished his entire career, he has used an artist’s facility with light and color to create empathy — one might almost say compassion — between subject and viewer, whatever the focus of the image. It is no surprise that he has regularly returned to this theme. Work on a still vaguely formulated Buddhism project gathered momentum during trips across Asia and the United States over a period of twenty years, and by 2001 McCurry’s ideas had coalesced into a plan to document the global influence of Buddhism from its origins in Nepal and India to its current status as a world religion with hundreds of millions of followers. His travels had shown him the paths that Buddhism itself had taken through Central and Southeast Asia and then the rest of the world, and had impressed on him the profoundly pervasive nature of Buddhist thought, deeply embedded in the cultures of Asia.

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA

Buddhism is often associated with a lightness of touch and a deep serenity, and it is often a surprise to Westerners that certain strands of the faith encourage a very robust engagement with daily teachings and practices. For example, for viewers unaware of the culture, McCurry’s images of Tibetan monks debating can seem almost violent. As the photographer himself witnessed, these encounters are carried out in an atmosphere of great zeal. “I watched some monks being questioned about Buddhist principles, thought, logic. They have a very stylized way of debating: one monk will tie his jacket around his waist and ask a question of another one, with a slam of his foot on the floor and a loud clap of his hands, demanding a reply. Then everyone wants to talk at once. They get very emotional about the discussion.”

Pictured above: Debating monks at Sakya monastery, Bylakupper, Karnataka, India, 2001 Opposite page: Young Rinpoche (meaning ‘precious one’), Sakya monastery, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, 2001

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA

Procession of nuns, Rangoon, Burma, 1994

From 1992 to 1998, McCurry made some seven extended trips to different Buddhist countries, including Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand and Nepal. While not explicitly focused on Buddhism, these journeys enabled him to develop his ideas for a story on the faith and allowed him to capture different aspects of the subject, including pictures of monks and lay people and their different daily routines and practices. In 1994, on a trip to Myanmar, he photographed nuns as they collected their alms and visited the numerous temples scattered throughout the city of Rangoon. These shots include several images of novice monks at play. “Every time I’ve visited the Buddhist monastery, I’ve seen a playfulness among the monks, a joy in the way they conduct themselves and interact with each other.”

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

McCurry’s documentation of world Buddhism makes it clear that each culture in which it operates has subtle adopted and adapted the tenets of the faith to its own traditions and practices; to see Buddhism as a single, homogenous religion is to ignore those customizations. Depsite this, as McCurry’s work reveals, there is a common desire among all who observe the principles of the faith to live with empathy, realizing the words of the Dalai Lama: “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” But McCurry does more than just capture pictures of this — he mirrors it at the formal level, too. Each of his photographs treats the subject with consideration and care. Never imposing, each picture approaches the subject with warmth and openness. McCurry’s empathy is a rare quality in a medium that too often treats its subjects with a detached indifference. The relationship between Buddhism and photography is a strong one. The need to be constantly mindful, to allow oneself to be open to others, to live in the moment, is an experience common to both the art of taking pictures and the practice of meditation. As such, it is no surprise that a life-long fascination with Buddhism has shadowed McCurry’s career. His approach to the power of photography — “through my pictures, I can help others to explore the planet” — might be said to evoke the words of the Buddha: “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Above: Buddha statue, Burma, 2011; Opposite Page: A young monk stands in a doorway, Myanmar, Burma, 2010;P.66: Shaolin monks training, Zhengzhou, China, 2004; P.67: Tibetan prayer festival at the site of the Bodhi tree, Bodh Gaya, India, 2000

BEYOND THE FOOTSTEPS OF BUDDHA

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

THE TIBETANS 1989-2009 / CHI NA, IND IA, T IB ET

Since the Chinese invaded Tibet half a century

fortunes of a people struggling in their

ago, Tibetans have fought to keep their culture

homeland and aborad. In documenting both

and traditional religion alive in the face of over-

Tibet and the Tibetans, McCurry records the

whelming Chinese settlement and encroaching

diaspora of an ancient people and traditional

Western values. Steve McCurryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s images span

customs under threat.

two decades of travel in Tibet, following the

Above: A family prepares dinner in Tagong, Kham, Tibet, 1999; Previous Page: Young Tibetan girl in a Chinese style coat, Tagong, Tibet, 1999

Steve McCurry made his first trip to Tibet in May 1989, and over some eight separate visits during the next two decades the country and its culture would become central to much of his work, in particular his photographic studies of Buddhism. “One of the most amazing things to me about the Tibetan people,” he says, “is their devotion to Buddhism, which they’ve maintained despite the events of the last half century.” But even apart from its religion, the people and the places of Tibet were also to have a profound effect on his understanding and documentation of ancient cultures in transition. As the survival of traditional ways of life on the high Himalayan plateau became more and more precarious, his interest in recording authentic Tibetan culture, as well as the changes taking place there, became a passion.

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

For Tibet, the twentieth century was a period of social and political turmoil that climaxed in the invasion of the country by the army of the newly established People’s Republic of China in October 1950, followed by the 14 th Dalai Lama’s flight into exile nine years later. The Chinese occupation of the country was accelerated during and after Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, when thousands of temples, monasteries and official buildings were destroyed in wide-scale attacks on the Tibetan way of life. From his very first visit, McCurry was struck by the devastation the monasteries had suffered and fascinated by the proud and dignified people of this troubled land — by the resilience and strength that saw many Buddhist temples and shrines continue to function and most people persevere in their traditional customs, despite the increasingly overwhelming Chinese presence. Among the driving forces that maintain this traditional way of life are the day-to-day rituals of Buddhism that permeate every element of Tibetan society, and it was these practices and the long-established enclaves in which they are carried out that first attracted McCurry’s eye. Top: Young monk holding flowers to be offered in prayer at the academy. Larung Gar, Kham, Tibet, 1999; Bottom: A monk prays overlooking the Buddhist encampment. Larung Gar, Kham, Tibet, 2000;

THE TIBETANS

McCurry’s habit of simply wandering echoed the life of the nomadic tribes that he photographed farming the valleys or grazing cattle on the high plateaus. On walks through the towns and cities, or while driving along country roads, he frequently stopped to engage with the people he met in any way he could — attempting to make some kind of connection, even though he didn’t speak Tibetan, and only then taking a picture (or more often than not just carrying on with his journey). “You can do so much with non-verbal communication”, he insists. This need to establish a relationship with his subject rather than merely photographing a stranger, is an approach that has always been central to his work. “You can’t just walk out in the morning thinking: “I’m going to take pictures today.” First you have to engage with the surroundings, cultivating a childlike curiosity about the world and the day and the street you’re on...You take a walk, you meet people and many times those people aren’t going to result in a picture, but the encounter is worthwhile.” During the three months he spent in Tibet in 1999, McCurry was finally able to spend time in Lhasa and visit the Potala palace — a Buddhist monastery, now a museum, that was before 1959 the seat of the government of Tibet. He was able to travel more freely around the country than had been possible a decade before, photographing pilgrims at Gyantse monastery and elsewhere and attending the annual Tagong horse fair, on the Kham grasslands of eastern Tibet, in June. Here, he was less interested in the festival itself than in the variety of people attending the event. In situations such as this, McCurry always moves beyond the spectacle to seek out those on the periphery, the figures watching from the sidelines. He sees individuals, rather than groups, and it is this focus on the individual that enables viewers to connect with his work in a deeply profound way.

Opposite Page: Clockwise from top left: Amdo nomads in a tent, Tibet 2001; Pilgrims travel across Tibet on foot, horseback and on yaks, traditional methods of travel, Tibet, 2001; Nomads wait to enter the Jokhang Temple, considered to be the most holy site in Lhasa, Tibet, 1999; Next Page: A baby is wrapped in a grimy, but colorful blanket. Xigaze, Tibet, 2001 74

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

THE TIBETANS

UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS

“REAL DISASTER ONLY COMES WHEN YOU LOSE HOPE.” THE TIBETANS

STEVE MCCURRY P H OTOG R A PHY AWARD S

1980

1990

1998

Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, for coverage

Award of Excellence, White House News

of the war in Afghanistan for TIME Magazine

Photographers Association for “Spanish Gypsy”

LIFE Magazine: “The Eisenstaedt Awards”

1984

1992

1999

National Press Photographers Association:

Oliver Rebbot Memorial Award, Overseas

Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania,

Magazine Photographer of the Year

Press Club: Best Photographic Reporting from

Lifetime Fellow Award

1985

Abroad on Gulf War Coverage

Our World Photo Winner, “Red Boy”

2000

Oliver Rebbot Award Citation:

1993

Picture of the Year Competition: Book of the

“Monsoons” and “The New Faces of Baghdad”

National Press Photographers Association,

Year, South SouthEast (Phaidon Press); Mag-

1986

Award of Excellence for “Rubble of War”

azine Feature, Picture Award of Excellence, “Women in Field, Yemen”

Oliver Rebbot Memorial Award, Overseas

1994

Press Club: Best Photographic Reporting from

Pennsylvania State University, Arts and

2002

Abroad for work done in the Philippines

Architecture Distinguished Alumni Award

French Art Directors Association, Award of

1987

1996

Medal of Honour, Philippines, for coverage of

Picture of the Year Competition: Magazine

the 1986 Philippine Revolution

Feature Picture Story Award: “Beggar”; Magazine Feature Picture Story Award: “Burma: The Richest of the Poor Countries”

Excellence for “Women of Afghanistan” United Nations International Photographic Council: Special Recognition Award in recognition of his ceaseless devotion and outstanding achievement in photography

2002, continued Photographer of the Year, PMDA Professional Photographer Award Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa,

Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey Distinguished Visiting Fellow, College of Creative Studies, University of California 2003 Co-recipient of the NY Film Festival Gold for documentary Afghan Girl: Found

International Photography Awards, California, the Lucie Award for Photojournalism 2005 Honorary Fellowship, The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britan, London 2006 Honorary Fellowship, New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography

2006, continued National Press Photographers Association first Place, “Buddha Rising”, National Geographic

Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition award 2009 Abrogina D’Oro, Milan, Italy 2011 Prix Liber Press, Girona, Spain Leica Hall of Fame Award, St. Moritz, Switzerland 2012 Pictures of the Year International Book Award for The Iconic Photographs (Phaidon Press) Humanity in the Arts Peace Awards; International Committee of Artists for Peace

Steve McCurry with members of the Surma Tribe, Opposite Page: Steve McCurry portrait

PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS

INDEX

Dith Pran 34, 35, 37

Kuwait 25-31

George W. Bush 48,49 Ground Zero 41, 42, 50, 54-57 Gulf War 25

Mingun Pagoda 58 Myanmar 54, 68, 69

Al-ahmadi oil field 26, 28 Afghanistan 17-23 Afghan Girl 17, 21-23 Agra India Fort Station 12, 13 Angkor 32-41

Bangladesh 9,10,14 Buddhism 33, 59-69, 72-74 Burma 58-60, 64, 65

Cambodia 32-41 China 67-68

India 8-15, 62, 63 Iraq 25

New York City 42-57 Nepal 59, 61, 64

Pakistan 13

Refugee Camp 18, 21

Ta Promh Temple 36, 37-38 Taj Mahal 15 Thailand 64 Tibet 70-77 Twin Towers 45-47, 45, 55, 57

United States 42-57

Saddam Hussein 27, 31 Saudi Arabia 27 September 11 th 42-57 Sharbat Gula 17, 21, 22, 23

INDEX

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UNTOLD: THE STORIES BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS