Steve McCurry India Photo Exhibition

Steve McCurry has been one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography for more than forty years, with twenty books, and numerous exhibitions around the world.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; McCurry studied film and fine art photography at the Pennsylvania State University. After several years of freelance work, McCurry made his first of what would become many trips to India. Traveling with little more than a bag of clothes and another of film, he made his way across the subcontinent, exploring the country with his camera.

It was after several months of travel, he met a group of refugees from Afghanistan, who smuggled him across the border into their country, just as the Russian Invasion was unfolding. Emerging after weeks embedded with the Mujahideen, McCurry brought the world the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Since then, McCurry has gone on to create stunning images. His work spans conflicts, vanishing cultures, ancient traditions and contemporary culture alike - yet always retains the human element.

McCurry has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal. The Minister of French Culture has also appointed McCurry a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters and most recently, the Royal Photographic Society in London awarded McCurry the Centenary Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

McCurry has published books including The Imperial Way (1985), Monsoon(1988), Portraits (1999), South Southeast(2000), Sanctuary(2002), The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage (2003), Steve McCurry(2005), Looking East(2006), In the Shadow of Mountains(2007), The Unguarded Moment, (2009), The Iconic Photographs(2011), Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs (2013), From These Hands: A Journey Along the Coffee Trail (2015), India (2015), and On Reading (2016), Afghanistan (2017), A Life in Pictures (2018), Animals (2019), In Search of Elsewhere (2020), and Stories & Dreams: Portraits of Childhood (2021).

Why did Steve McCurry go to India?
McCurry's fascination with the monsoon season and his admiration for two photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Margaret Bourke-White, who had done remarkable work in India, led him to the country.

What inspires Steve McCurry?
Steve was greatly influenced by the book Minamata by Eugene Smith. This book is about a company in Japan that had been polluting the water which caused a lot of birth defects. Steve shares with you one of Eugene's photographs that he thinks is one of the most amazing photographs of all times.

What was unique about Steve McCurry photography?
McCurry is perhaps most famous for the vivid use of colour that dominates his work. McCurry's reason for this is simple: the world is in colour so it's logical to shoot it in colour. Throughout the years, he has visited locations that naturally lend themselves to colour representations – India, Cuba and Tibet, et al.

Steve McCurry's career in photography has seen him travel the world covering conflicts, vanishing traditional cultures and scenes from contemporary society. Best known for his photograph Afghan Girl, he has gone on to document the impact of war and conflict on the environment.