Biography

Steve McCurry is an American editorial photographer. McCurry focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war impresses on the landscape, but rather, on the human face. Although McCurry shoots both in digital and film, his admitted preference is for transparency film. Steve McCurry has been one of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography for more than thirty years, with scores of magazine and book covers, over a dozen books, and countless exhibitions around the world to his name. He  always retains the human element that made his celebrated image of the ‘Afghan Girl’ such a powerful image. McCurry has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, National Press Photographers Award, and an unprecedented four first prize awards from the World Press Photo contest.

I like Steve McCurry’s photographs because he takes photos of real life situations. I like his style of street photography  because it is not just of happy people in a perfect life situation, his photos capture the hard life  and the poverty that people have in countries around the world, giving his photos a lot of meaning behind them. I also like the vibrant colours and huge tonal range that he captures in his photography . Some of his images make me feel sad because the situations some of the children are in is quite sad. However a lot of his other photos make me feel happy because the people are genuinely smiley  and look like they are having fun. After looking at McCurry’s photographs I would like to apply to my own photography capturing natural photos that have not been planned to take. I would also like to apply the tonal range he uses in his photos when I go out and take photos.

Photo Analysis

This image of a young boy can be seen as an environmental portrait as the image captures both a portrait as well as the location/environment which is going on in the background. The difference between this and just a portrait is that it tells us a little bit more about the story behind the image, we can pick out key elements which act as clues to the narrative of the photography. For example in this image we can see that they are in a simplistic location due to the background being open and bare. The colours and tones used in the photograph also give us clues to the message of the image. The natural colours and earthy tones really tuck out to me in this image highlighting that they are close with the earth and that they mainly rely on natural elements and resources that are in their surroundings. this can be taken to tell a wider story that they are not materialistic people. however the dull tones in the background could be starting to highlight harshness of their life. it is noticeable that the subject is a boy living in poverty most lively in a third world countries such as Africa so the dull tones may show that he is having a tough life.

Id consider this image to both follow and break the rule of thirds. the young boy, which is the focal point of the image is in the centre of the image which may break the rule of thirds however the other outer aspects of the image are also kept to the outer axis which may show that the artist has purposely broken the rule of thirds so that the image is noticeably broken up into the three main sections which tell us about the message to the photograph. Leading lines has been used in the image in the background where the land meets the sky is makes a deffinaite separation  between land and sky showing the different colour tones in the image. the mothers arms which are holding the focal point of the portrait can also be consider as creating leading lines as her arms lead your eyes from the top of the image down to the subject keeping your eye on the focal point but also leading you around the image at the same time. The eye level view point as has a lot of potential depth and meaning to it. I portray this eye level technique as the photographer trying to make us feel equal with the subject neither is looking up or down at each other. This could implie that the photographer considers equality a very important message which he wants to convey through his photographs of third world countries.

The mixture of the use of technical aspects of the camera such as the changing of the aperture and ISO have created a distinct depth of field which brings the subject into clear focus in the fore ground and places the environment in the background as blurred. This helps to highlight what the subject is whilst still showing the environment in the background of the image. With this technique the background is not taking away from the image but adding depth to it. The out of focus background can also act as framing to the portrait always keeping your eye on the main focus of the image.

The image has most likely been digitally manipulated so that the image has a higher contrast making the tonal range varied including tones from pure white to pure black, giving again the image a sense of depth and realness. The lighting is a soft light therefore there  are no definite shadows created on the subject. however there is enough soft light possible created by clouds over the sun which keep the exposure low enough that the facial features are noticeable and with the slight contrast, compliments the strong and power facial expression which the young boy has.