Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stevemccurrythestoriesbehindthephotographs 130905142007
Stevemccurrythestoriesbehindthephotographs 130905142007
Workers turning ropes of sugar paste into hard candy, Kabul, Afghanistan, 2007
I wanted to do the story because the Hazaras were clearly a people suffering persecution they did not
deserve. They are considered heretics by the Sunni majority, and their social standing is similar to that of
the Dalit or untouchable caste in India. Now, with growing Taliban influence despite a decade of American
and NATO intervention, the Hazaras are probably going to suffer again.
Mother and child looking in through a taxi window, Bombay, India, 1993
I was in a taxi waiting at a traffic light during the monsoon, and a woman brought her child up to the car
window. I raised my camera, took two frames, the light changed, and off we went it all happened in about
seven or eight seconds. Two months later, I came across these two frames when I was editing the pictures in
New York. I was delighted that the picture came out as well as it did. It seemed to symbolize the separation
between my world and hers Im in this air conditioned bubble, shes out there in the heat and the rain and
how those two worlds came together for a moment.
Three monks climbing to the Mingun pagoda, cracked during an earthquake in 1839, Mandalay, Burma,
1994
'There is something deeply appealing about Buddhist countries. I am endlessly intrigued by the way the
monks live, by the way Buddhist philosophy emphasizes compassion, as well as by the iconography. The
ethics and the aesthetics of Buddhism are melded in a unique way.
Struggling camels silhouetted against the oil-fire, al-Ahmadi oil field, Kuwait, 1991
The darkness caused by the burning oil wells was like a moonless night. The exposure on my camera was
about a quarter of a second on f2.8. The photographs show a scorched, infernal place, but they dont convey
the fine mist of oil that hung in the air and coated my cameras, or the deafening roar of the burning wells. Nor
do they show the unexploded bombs and mines that dotted the desert. Ill never forget the moment I got out of
the car to stretch my legs and caught a glimpse of an allied lawn-dart mine behind the vehicle with our tire
tracks running right over it!
cast
images credit
www.
Music
created
o.e.
end