Growing up, one thing I always loved about visiting my grandmother’s house was looking through her collection of National Geographic Magazines going back into the 1930’s. My parents had their own subscription through the 1970’s and 1980’s, and the power of great photography in telling stories about our world was something I absorbed through my exposure to the works of photographers like Steve McCurry. While many people may not recognize his name, they almost certainly recognize his iconic photograph of the Afghan girl that was a cover on one issue of National Geographic.
The current volume, published in 2007 by Phaidon Press, Inc., is a gorgeous hardcover volume containing many beautifully printed color images that illustrate that his “Afghan Girl” was not just a lucky shot. McCurry’s craft and consistent excellence in capturing portraits of people in this war-torn land (and elsewhere around the world) mark him as possibly the premier portrait photographer of our time.
It’s also telling that McCurry was provided with the last roll of Kodachrome film to come off of the production line at Kodak. There’s a wonderful National Geographic documentary on his quest to shoot the last roll of Kodachrome, and you can easily find it on YouTube. This book illustrates the tonality and color saturation that was the signature of Kodachrome transparencies (when they were properly exposed, as all of these are). This book, then, also serves as a testimony to the legacy of Kodachrome: gone, but not forgotten!
At the rear of the book are notes by Kerry William Purcell about each photograph . While not essential to the enjoyment of the book, they offer background that makes it possible to appreciate even more the work that McCurry has done, and the passion that he has brought to his profession. Risking his life to enter dangerous lands where strangers are frequently not trusted or welcomed, through his humanity he still manages to communicate in such a way as to capture deeply personal portraits, even in the absence of a common spoken language. That’s what this book really does, then. It does exactly what National Geographic has always striven to make apparent: that we are all human beings, facets of humanity having more in common with each other than we sometimes care to acknowledge.
This is a truly excellent volume, and it makes me want to try to make meaningful portraits in my own photographic work. If you haven’t seen McCurry’s work, this is an outstanding introduction. If you’re already familiar with his work, you’ll find yourself studying the images for hints and ideas about the people whose lives he’s documented, and if you’re a photographer, you’re bound to be inspired to produce better work.