Middle East Art Fusion

|* photos. Steve McCurry

"McCurry has published books and covered areas of international and civil conflict, including Burma, Yemen, Kashmir, and Cambodia. He has won many of photojournalism’s highest awards".


(c) Steve McCurry

Probably you've seen the famous photograph of an Afghan refugee girl with the bold look of a wolf-cub. This photo was taken by Steve McCurry, one of finest image makers. He keeps the tradition of documentary, capchuring the deep insides of the human nature. As written in his bio: "His career was launched when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes, images which would be published around the world as among the first to show the conflict there".

After Soviet helicopters destroyed this 12-year-old girl's village, she was forced to make a two-week walk out of the dangerous mountains towards to border of Afghanistan with Pakistan. Her eyes were so expressive, telling the story without any words, all the pain, all the struggle, that the photo was published on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985. This photo was used on rugs and tattoos and became one of the most widely reproduced photos in the world.

However, this girl was found 20 years later. Here are the photos of her:





Again, her eyes... they can tell how her story continued. Unfortunately, they lost the sharp boldness, intensity and wild nature.

posted by Aleksandra Birjukova @ 13.10.05