Durante más de treinta años, ha sido una de las figuras icónicas del arte contemporáneo. Nacido en Pensilvania, realizó innumerables viajes a la India, atraído por su cultura. Steve McCurry, en 1979 cruzó la frontera hacia Afganistán, para documentar la invasión rusa en ese país. Luego de meses de convivir con los Mujaidines, atravesó la frontera con Pakistán con los rollos cosidos en su ropa. Sus imágenes fueron las primeras en mostrar al mundo, la brutalidad de la invasión rusa. El cuerpo de su obra, abarca por igual, conflictos, culturas evanescentes, antiguas tradiciones y culturas contemporáneas, si bien, siempre conserva el elemento humano, que transformó la celebre imagen de «La Niña Afgana». Por primera vez, en nuestro país, una selección de 120 imágenes inéditas pertenecientes al archivo del fotógrafo. La muestra plantea, un mundo sin divisiones geográficas marcadas por la diversidad. Para visitar, en el centro cultural Borges.

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Coal Miner, Pul i Khumri, Afghanistan, 2002 «A coal miner, dark with the dust from the mine, slowly registers his presence against the darker field of the mine’s deep shaft in central Afghanistan. Light from his lamp and the trail of white smoke from his cigarette focus attention. Then the whites of his eyes emerge, then his fingertips. Gradually he appears. This difficult image mirrors the tough lives of miners in Afghanistan, men who live perilously under threatening conditions.» – Phaidon 55, NYC44609, MCS2002002 K006 final print_milan A coal miner, dark with the dust from the mine, slowly registers his presence against the darker field of the mine’s deep shaft in central Afghanistan. Light from his lamp and the trail of white smoke from his cigarette focus attention. Then the whites of his eyes emerge, then his fingertips. Gradually he appears. This difficult image mirrors the tough lives of miners in Afghanistan, men who live dangerous lives under threatening conditions.
TIBET-10009, Monk at Jokhang temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2000’There was something about his face,’ McCurry has said of this monk at the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, Tibet. There was some ‘ancient feeling, some kind of ancient truth there. I have never seen a face quite like his.’ He looks with intensity into McCurry’s camera, deeply aware of the transience of the moment.»The lines of time trace a deep personal history across this old monk’s face. It seems as though his has been a life of enquiry, a quest for a truth, on a higher level. He looks into the lens of the camera with a searching gaze. That is what attracted McCurry, as he visited the Jokhang Temple on his photographic pilgrimage through Tibet, sketching with his camera the various pathways to the Buddha. – Phaidon 55Magnum Photos, NYC31836, MCS2000009 K001Phaidon, 55, Looking East, The Path to Buddha, Iconic Images, final print_milan, final book_iconic
DSC_7400, Omo Valley, Ethiopia, 08/2013, ETHIOPIA-10319NF. Child with wreath of leaves around head. retouched_Kate Daigneault 08/20/2013
MALI-10004, AFRICA-10018, Africa, 1987 Boy, near Timbuktu, Mali, 1987McCurry photographed this boy outside Timbuktu on the Niger River. ‘His parents were harvesting rice,’ McCurry recalls. ‘He was just horsing around and there was a lot of mud, because the rice is in water and the mud had dried on his skin. It was right around dark and maybe he could feel the chill.’ Magnum Photos, NYC9468, MCS1987002 K100Phaidon, Portraits, Iconic Images, final book_iconic
Woman at a horse festival, Tagong, Tibet, 1999McCurry pictured this woman at the famous Tagong horse festival. It is a vivid image. The emerald green shirt, adorned with delicate white flowers, contrasts sharply with the rich blues and reds of the necklaces and rouge applied to the woman’s cheeks and lips. All set against a blood red backdrop, it makes for an intoxicating picture.Phaidon, Looking East, The Path to Buddha, Iconic Images, final book_iconic, final print_milanMagnum Photos, NYC31808, MCS1999007K001Each portrait speaks a thousand words about its subject and their world. The intricately carved beads of a festival-goer in Kham, Tibet, unwittingly demonstrate as skill in handicraft that has been almost entirely lost in the West. The striking robes and ceremonial clothing of monks and worshippers at temple are vividly colored by the very same natural dyes and spices that first lured Western traders to Asia. McCurry, Steve. (2006). Looking East. New York: Phaidon Press Inc., 61 final print_milan