In collaboration with Steve McCurry’s studio and Magnum Photos, Museum Helmond presented, from March 7 through September 10, Photographs from the East , the first major retrospective of this celebrated American photographer in the Netherlands.
His best-known photograph is the portrait of the Afghan girl The Afghan Girl that McCurry made in a refugee camp in Pakistan. The portrait of the girl with the striking green eyes became world-famous when it appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. At the time, this “photographic icon” remained especially relevant in light of contemporary refugee movements.
The exhibition at Museum Helmond included The Afghan Girl and 137 other large-format color photographs from the period 1979 to 2016. Steve McCurry (USA, 1950) excels in his personal approach to people and in capturing the local colors and light he encounters on his travels. The exhibited photographs came from his favorite continent, Asia. He traveled to countries including Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Burma/Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Tibet, and Vietnam. Most of the photographs in the exhibition were taken in India and Afghanistan.
