Portrait Research Task

  
EXPLORING IDENTITY: STEVE MCCURRY 

  “In portraits I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face… When I find the right person or subject, I may come back once or twice, or half a dozen times… there is no time for a draft – either I have the shot or I don’t.”

Whilst researching photographers, I stumbled across Steve McCurry, know for his documentary styled portraits.  McCurry is a very iconic figure in contemporary photography. The American photographer is universally recognised for his vibrant and evocative coloured portraiture photographs. McCurry's photographs are very pure and is a more about documenting but has artistic elements as he merges the lines of both. He "focuses on being present in the moment' and its uniqueness of the moment as 'right now is only offered once".  

At 19, McCurry travelled to Europe to live for a year. At that point, he decided that he wanted to travel for the rest of his life. He wanted to go to new places, learn about new cultures and meet new people. His says he "realised there was a whole world with incredible beauty" and he wanted to see it all. However, he quickly realised that with travelling, he needed some purpose. This led him to doing a film course at university which exposed him to photography which soon became his 'purpose' as he believes "to collect photographs, is to collect the world."

He has a very close relationship with portraiture work as he believes that it invites the audience to recognise the identity of the subject. We connect eye to eye which is why many of his images revolve around people. 

RED BOY, PAINTED BOY HOLI FESTIVAL, MUMBAI 

(BOMBAY), INDIA, 1996

In a festival of Ganesh in Bombay, McCurry captured a young boy in the midst of the festival. McCurry captures the stilled moment of of this boy amongst the noise and celebration of the spirited parade. The boy is framed on one side of the turquoise pillar and a dark reddish shadow of a young child on the other. The entirety of the boy is covered with a red coloured powder, leaving intense focus on his vulnerable, questioning eyes. I am really intrigued by the photo as I love the striking red against the green that compliment each other. Coincidentally, it reminds me of the shoot we did during our DSLR workshop. I took a series of photos of Claudia who wore a red hoodie and laid upside down on a green sofa. I also think it is interesting that McCurry captured such a serious look of the boy during a fun and exciting time. The intensity of his expression is astounding.

PROCESSION OF NUNS, RAGOON, BURMA 1994 

Silently walking in a single-file line procession, McCurry followed these nuns for several days with their consent and searched for this singular moment. The photo is very geometrical due to the yellow brick work of an old colonial building which echoes the nun's parasols. The vibrant colours of the red, blues, yellows and pinks jumps out at the viewers. Photographing on a rainy day really enhances the colour and makes them reflect off of the pavement which makes the photo really interesting. I enjoy looking at the moment he has captured; nuns doing their daily procession collecting provisions across the town.

DUST STORM, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, 1983

I am really captured by this photo of a group of women in a dust storm huddling together, protecting them selves from the dust and sand. The photo has such warm colours; women in crisp red saris against such a yellow and orange back ground with soft silhouettes of trees. McCurry captures such a fleeting moment as the sand storm finished soon after the photo was taken. I really like the lighting in this particular photograph as the top left in the background is the brightest and gets darker closer to the foreground.

McCurry was in a car during the sandstorm on his way to another destination when he spotted these women together, he ran out of the car across the field to capture all of 2 minutes of this sandstorm. "You can't be hung up on what you think your 'real' destination is. The journey is just as important.

At the age of 11, McCurry saw a photo in Life Magazine in 1961 (shown below) displaying the Indian monsoon as the subject, the photo had been taken by photographer Brian Brake. This photograph stuck with McCurry and in 1983, he would go off to Sri Lanka, India and Nepal to photograph monsoons himself.

STEVE MCCURRY PHOTOGRAPHING DURING
MONSOON IN NEPAL, 1983 

STEVE MCCURY'S PHOTOGRAPH DURING MONSOON
IN INDIA

During his time at university he found great pleasure in going through past photographer's work, and the work that resinated with him greatly was of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Henri had done a great deal of traveling which again, is what McCurry aspired to do. McCurry loved Henri's 'great sense of composition and shape and beautiful geometry'. He told stories of ordinary life through his photographs. This was the kind of photography McCurry wanted to emulate.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer who was considered as the master of candid photography and photo journalism. He pioneered the genre of street photography and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. He was also a founding member of Magnum Photography in 1947. Henri published his book in 1952, "Images à la sauvette”, in english that translates to "The Decisive Moment." In that book he outlines three critical rules a photographer must take on board:

1) The ability to recognise an event and closely related concepts: "In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv."

2) The skill of capturing the composition that will express the essence of the event itself.

3) To be able to do both rules 1 & 2 in a fleeting moment.

When looking at Steve McCurry's work and watching interviews of him, he reflects these 3 rules of Henri Cartier-Bresson. He looks for the details in the moment, documenting them as he goes.

Works of Henri Cartier-Bresson:

 KYOTO, JAPAN 1965

 BEHIND THE GARE ST. LAZARE 1932

DISTRICT OF MENILMONTANT,
20TH ARRANDISSEMENT, PARIS 
1969

From looking at Cartier-Bresson's work, you can clearly see the 'in the moment' look that he is after. These photos clearly display that as the subjects of the photo are all in mid-movement. They all seem as if they are running from something or are on a mission to get somewhere. He primarily worked with a Leica camera with a 55 mm lens. He believed that such a small camera would make him unnoticeable to avoid unnatural behavior in front of a camera. He even went to the extent of painting the shiny parts black. This re-emphasises his way of working, capturing the actions of people in the moment.

Both McCurry and Cartier-Bresson documented the everyday lives of people in their natural habitats. I really like that McCurry's photos aren't planned or staged, but he looks for the right moment, a split second where he finds exactly what he is looking for or is intrigued by. He captures the moments that people are quick to overlook, much like Henri Cartier-Bresson. He captures a person's story. 

Books McCurry, Steve (2007) In the Shadow of Mountains. New York: Phaidon Press Ltd.
Bannon, Anthony (2005) Steve McCurry. New York: Phaidon Press Ltd.
McCurry, Steve (1999) Portraits. Phaidon Press Ltd.

Websites
https://www.stevemccurry.com/galleries
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/contributors/m/photographer-steve-mccurry/

Articles
https://time.com/4351725/steve-mccurry-not-photojournalist/

Interviews

Steve McCurry: "A Life of Photography" | Talks at Google:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWxwJAclNEc