Photo: © Steve McCurry — Afghanistan
The definitive retrospective of Steve McCurry’s work in Afghanistan features photographs of the country’s ethnic and religious communities. Khurasan, as Afghans have called their country for the past two millennia, has seen only brief periods of political unity. McCurry brings together more than 140 compelling images from nearly four decades of travel through Afghanistan, portraying a seemingly forbidding yet exceptionally beautiful country and its disarming people.
Afghanistan has long been shaped by tribal rivalries, colonial wars and geopolitical conflict. Afghans have called their mountains “the land of rebellion.” The genes of invaders—Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Sikhs, British and Russians—have mingled with those of Afghanistan’s original inhabitants.
From the violent chaos in Afghanistan came some of the most breathtaking images. For nearly four decades, McCurry traveled regularly to the country and documented its people in a rare and remarkable way. His most iconic portrait, Afghan Girl (1984), has graced the covers of many magazines around the world. Like so much of McCurry’s work , it has a timeless, painterly quality that stands in complete contrast to the troubled region where it was photographed.
“They are a proud people, eyes leveled straight, in contempt as much as in curiosity: these are the faces, both male and female, that peer so defiantly from Steve’s magnificent photographs.”
— William Dalrymple
McCurry was repeatedly exposed to dangers that were sometimes unavoidable in a photographer’s life. He often ventured behind the lines, usually at great risk. On his first trip to Afghanistan in 1979, he dressed in Afghan clothing in order to be smuggled across the border from Pakistan.
That journey into the treacherous, unpredictable landscape—controlled at different times by the Mujahideen, the Russians and the Taliban—was one McCurry would make many times. Many other photographers followed in his footsteps, but none returned with such an impeccable portfolio.
Afghanistan — Steve McCurry
Pages: 256
Price: € 59.00
Publisher: Taschen
ISBN: 9783836569361
