"The most seemingly mundane activities can be inspirational when you look beneath the surface." Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry, a tremendous photographer, was born in Philadelphia in 1950, he worked at the newspaper for two years and traveled to India for freelance. He started his career as a photographer when he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he sewn films and photos into his clothes when he emerged from Afghanistan. He won countless awards of photography. McCurry explores themes of humanity in difficult circumstances, the human spirit, hope, poverty, determination, love of parent and child and war. Steve McCurry’s photos focus on people’s eyes and those eyes tell the story of the person. "If you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view."

As I was looking through Steve McCurry’s photos in his website, this photo of a child holding a gun with unsoiled eyes captured my eyes. His clothes are cluttered, brown and dirty. His skin is faded dark brown and it’s not emphasized in this photo, it’s slightly fainting. It’s not noticed at first when a person looks at this photo. His clothes and skin symbolize the weakness of this little boy. Although he has a gun, he has not enough power, he still has fear as a young child. Most of people will think that this boy is strong and he has gone through all the dangerous occasions that he is not afraid of anything anymore. If I just look at his face, his eyes and the gun which are positioned in the center, I can never guess what he is terrified. There is a huge contrast of colors between the eyes and his skin. He represents the children who live in a war place or danger zone.

The cloth that he is wearing on his head looks like a tent or a cave. A tent or a cave has defensible walls. However inside of the cave, there is nothing but dimness, gloomy breeze wondering around, rushing as fast as it can to get out of the walls. The focal point of this photo is the eyes. The eyes are the cleanest part in the photo. If I stare at those eyes, I might fall into that. I might be able to feel the spirit, and know the stories behind him. I could communicate with his eyes and his dried tears, the tears make his skin look pale brown, becoming weaker and losing the meaning of life. Steve McCurry positioned this boy in a plain background but showed the boy’s skin. I think he used the skin as a background. The mixture of foreground which is eyes and gun and the background, the skin introduces to the viewer to imagine a story about this boy and think deeper.


Steve McCurry captures the spirit of the person. He wants the viewer to read and analyze the photo: to feel the soul and be able to communicate with the focus point. His photos have more ideas then just spirit and emotion. When the viewers stare at the photo, they can hear the voices, smell what’s around them, see what’s next to them, feel the danger and taste the word of a fear that pops up their mouth. I learnt that to analyze a photo, I have to look at foreground and background, color contrast, size and position. Also, I need to be able to make inference about the photo. The photo will look more realistic if I infer some ideas in the photo. The photos inspire people to look back or look around to see what actually is happening in this world. There are gazillions of people who are in the same difficult circumstance as the people in the photos. Since the photos makes the viewers to actually think and be part of the scene, the viewers will understand more about them and stand up and act for the people in difficult circumstances. I believe that McCurry’s photos will endure forever. The viewers will never forget the eyes in the photo. The eyes will grab on to the viewer's heart. A great photo has a focus point that symbolizes the main idea. McCurry’s photos tells us journey of the people in the photo. From a scene, the viewers can notice the whole journey. Not just the scene but the whole story will last forever in our hearts.

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Steve McCurry's website-galleries-child soldiers-8