Visual Comunications Research blog 2 Steve Mccurry

known as one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photographers for more than 30 years for his distinctive and unique style. He originally studied film at Pennsylvania state university he then went on to work for a local newspaper. He did many years of freelance work and then took his first of many trips to India travelling with nothing more than a bag of clothes and another of film. His work has featured world wide in magazines and his work has been a frequent contribution to national geographic one of the most well known magazines in the world.


He shoot with both digital and film however he says he prefers to shoot with film, Eastman Kodak let him shoot the last ever produced roll of Kodachrome transparency film. which was processed in July 2010 by Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kansas and will be housed at the George Eastman House.

I find his work very distinctive and are truly eye catching and all of them are full of bright and vivid colours. He focuses a lot on his subjects eyes in the images I think this ejects the images with a lot of emotion and they people where intimidated by the camera as it is a unfamiliar object to them because they are from a destitute country. The depth of field in these images are amazing and the only thing in this images that is in focus is the subject this makes you focus on the subject and the great detail within the face. I like the fact the images are soft yet have so much detail within then. I also like the mystery in these images are you do not the back story to these people, you do not know what they have been threw or how they feel. Most of his portraits are staged but stage but in a natural well and all staged the same or very similar. The bottom left image is his most famous image of all time this images is titled "the afghan girl"in the history of the National Geographic magazine and her face became famous as the cover photograph on the June 1985 issue. I especially like the block colours in this images the image is simple yet affective. I think one of the factors that made this images so popular was because of the girls eye. They are a very vivid light green and as well as her pupils are not dilated as there is a lot of light in the image the colour stands out more and almost looks as if you are looking threw her with the non expressive look on her face. This still continues to be one of McCurrys most distinctive and well known images.