Steve McCurry in Schleswig. A retrospective.
In 2009, I was co-curator of the major Steve McCurry retrospective at the Schleswig City Museum – a co-production of Magnum Photos, the Iserlohn Municipal Gallery, and the city museum, which I directed. The exhibition premiered in Schleswig and Iserlohn before subsequently being shown in major museums worldwide, where it received a remarkable response.
During his stay, I accompanied Steve McCurry to the opening and his separate lecture the following day at the "Casa Cultura" in Schleswig. Simultaneously, a detailed article by me about the photographer's life and work was published in the journal of the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag (SHZ). Since this text has itself become a historical document and reflects my curatorial work from that time, I am republishing it here – supplemented by documentary photographs from that period and slightly adapted from the version I originally wrote. first published on my blog in 2012.
The following text is the original article I wrote for the SHZ Journal in 2009: “Steve McCurry: Depicting the world as it is.”
"Steve McCurry: Depicting the world as it is"
From the beginnings of photography to modern photojournalism
When the Frenchman Louis Daguerre discovered photography 170 years ago, no one could have predicted the rapid pace at which this revolutionary invention would change in the coming decades. In the pioneering years of photography, photographers still had to struggle with exposure times lasting minutes, so that only static situations without any action could be captured. Portraits in particular suffered from this deficiency and often appeared stiff and lifeless; The enormous size and weight of the recording devices at the time made things even more difficult.
However, just a few decades later, a fundamental change took place: With the invention of roll film by George Eastman in 1889 and, above all, the 35mm system by Oskar Barnack in 1913, the conditions were in place for the construction of small, portable, yet extremely powerful cameras. This marked the birth of modern photojournalism.
McCurry's journey to Afghanistan
From then on, photojournalists from major newspapers, magazines, and news agencies could operate flexibly anywhere and report firsthand from the hotspots of world events. Photography thus became the "eye of the 20th century." But it is not the technology that determines the quality of a photo essay, but ultimately the skill and philosophy of the person behind the camera. Or, in the words of the famous French Leica photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson: "To photograph is to put the head, the eye, and the heart on the same line of sight. It is a way of life."
One of the greatest photojournalists of our time, for whom this quote couldn't be more fitting, is Steve McCurry, who now lives in New York. Like many other famous photographers, McCurry, born in Philadelphia in 1950, initially pursued a different path, studying film and history. After a job at a local daily newspaper, he eventually moved to India and Nepal as a freelance photographer.
It was surely a mixture of professional intuition, a willingness to take risks, and a thirst for adventure that led him in 1979 – shortly before the Soviet invasion – to embark on a circuitous journey to Afghanistan, a country already torn apart by civil war. His photographs from the crisis region were among the first to be published worldwide.
The Afghan girl – an image that went around the world
The photographer had sewn the exposed films into his clothing before returning to Pakistan at great personal risk after his several-week stay as an escort of the Mujahideen. For his in Time McCurry received the prestigious "Robert Capa Gold Medal Award" in 1980 for his published reports.
McCurry has returned to Afghanistan 25 times since 1979 – a country that profoundly changed his life. His moving photograph of a twelve-year-old Afghan girl, taken in 1984 in a refugee camp near Peshawar, made the cover of [the magazine/publication name]. National Geographic Magazine and has since been reprinted thousands of times worldwide.
McCurry vividly recalls how he discovered the girl: “I saw the Afghan girl in a corner and was fascinated by her intense gaze. I had no idea that this photograph would be so different from my other photos.”
Magnum Photos and the humanistic approach
The fame associated with the image of the Afghan girl led to McCurry joining the Paris agency in 1986. Magnum Photos He was appointed to the "Olympus of photography," which admits only a select few of the very best. Cartier-Bresson was one of the founders of Magnum, and McCurry had a close acquaintance with him.
The agency was founded in 1947 with the credo of providing "a credible testimony of life." And McCurry sees his mission in the same way: "I want to stand in the tradition of photographers who depict the world as it is, portray humanity as it is, and document world events."
The Rediscovery of Sharbat Gula
This humanistic approach led McCurry back to Afghanistan in 2002. The goal was to find the then-unnamed Afghan girl. Informants eventually put the team on the right track to a woman in a remote village near the Tora Bora Mountains. A biometric analysis of her eyes allowed for the unequivocal identification of Sharbat Gula.
She herself only learned of the worldwide fame of her portrait through McCurry. A relief fund for Afghan women was established in her honor.
McCurry's worldwide work
McCurry's work is not solely connected to Afghanistan. Commissions and his own curiosity have taken him around the globe. His primary focus remains Asia, whose landscapes and people he has documented in numerous publications.
He describes his work modestly: "I want to show: This is how we were and this is how we lived. These are the places. And here are some of the faces."
Ausklang
The 2009 exhibition marks a special moment for me, a time when curatorial work, journalistic research, and personal encounters converged. The fact that the show later garnered such a large international response lends the project an additional dimension in retrospect.
The article published here documents this phase and at the same time preserves a piece of photographic history that has lost none of its relevance to this day.
