Steve McCurry has traveled around the world taking photographs of people in war-torn lands. His most abiding image is that of the Afghan refugee, now identified as Sherbat Gula, which featured on the cover of National Geographic magazine's November 1984 issue. McCurry is currently in Taiwan for the Peoples of the World exhibition showing at MOCA and Warner Village until Jan. 18.
After the opening of the show last Friday, McCurry shared his experience as a National Geographic photographer with the Taipei Times.
Taipei Times: You have covered many peoples in the context of war and conflicts. What are you trying to show the people outside the war zone with these pictures?
Steve McCurry: Take the situation in Kashmir. It's a situation which is very volatile and dangerous. It's important to examine these places and try to understand and educate people about what's going on.
There are a lot of things happening in Kashmir apart from the war. So a National Geographic story would include the culture, religion, the people and geography. But also the conflict, the conflicts' causes. ... The emphasis is on the total picture, the total situation.
TT: How do you think conflict changes the people in the area?
McCurry: I think it totally traumatizes them. Then inevitably there's a whole lot of people becoming refugees. I think it's the duty of the international community, the civilized world, to try to, ideally, in the future, be able to eliminate the conflicts, because the people who end up suffering are the civilians.
TT: How do conflicts change the personality of a people?
In a situation like Afghanistan, people are uprooted, they're constantly on the move and being killed. Suddenly they face all these outside influences. They've been losing a little bit of their cultural identity, I think. It's psychologically traumatizing for these people.
You have 2 million, 3 million Afghans moving to Pakistan. Suddenly you've been in Pakistan for 15 or 20 years. You start to become more of a Pakistani than an Afghan. When you go back to Afghanistan you take all that Pakistani culture back to your homeland. ... It's a problem. An upheaval.
TT: What was your closest brush with death?
Probably that airplane [two-seater] crash in Yugoslavia where I was almost killed. That was in 1989. I was just lucky. The plane crashed into a lake. It went upside down. We were trying to swim out, but we had our seatbelts on. ... I was doing a culture story there.
TT: You've been in many dangerous situations. Do you think it's worth risking your life for photography?
I think you have to live your life the way you think is right. You can't be timid or shy or overly cautious. Some people are driven to do that, I supposed, some people are compelled. ... It's in their makeup or something. ... I do care that some of my assignments are dangerous. But you always try to be careful. I don't court danger just for the sake of danger.
TT: In your photos, especially portraits, your subjects always look very natural. How do you manage that?
McCurry: I'm very selective with people I photograph. I generally photograph people who fascinate me. ... People with an interesting story on their face. Somebody who's special in a visual way. They have a strong character on their face ... you feel an emotional connection to them.
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