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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Unguarded Moment


Steve McCurry’s personal approach has created a career of stunning photographs of people from around the world

By William Sawalich, Photography By Steve McCurry
Labels: Camera Technique, How To

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Boy in midflight, The Unguarded Moment, 2009

It’s obvious at a glance that the cover of Steve McCurry’s new book, The Unguarded Moment (Phaidon), is a great photograph. The more you look at it, though, the more you find yourself drawn into it. You study it, wondering about the running boy caught midstride, midair. Where is he going? Why is he running? You consider the life he may lead, how he came to live in such a place. You shift your gaze to the handprints at the left of the frame. Who put them there? Are they entirely innocent or slightly sinister? The scene is unquestionably beautiful, but it also somehow raises as many questions as it answers. The moment is pure tension—a coiled spring on the verge of release—a consequence of the decisive moment.

McCurry’s photographs, often portraits that center on people amid their daily lives, tend to feel like the kind of images Henri Cartier-Bresson, pioneer of the “decisive moment,” would have produced had he worked in color. Perhaps that’s the most appropriate way to think about McCurry’s work, too, as it’s built on photography’s inherent ability to capture moments like the cover of his book.


Cluster of women during a dust storm, Rajasthan, India, 1983
“I’ve been in that town many times,” McCurry says of the image from Jodhpur, India, “and I know it very well. That particular street, that alleyway—I recognized all those hands on the wall, and there was a sort of simplicity to the design. It was a very busy alleyway. There were cows and women and workers and people with bicycles and motorcycles coming through that alleyway. I took a number of pictures, many of which are fine. It’s just a question of working and waiting for something to come into your frame that will complete the picture.”

If he makes it sound simple, it’s because, to McCurry, the process is inherently so. He seeks simplicity in every aspect of his photography—from the equipment to the technique to the way he finds and engages with his subjects. Simplicity may be his guiding principle, second only perhaps to human interaction and interpersonal connection.

“When you’re out shooting, it’s not just about the pictures,” McCurry says. “It’s also about enjoying your afternoon, or the people you’re photographing, the places you’re photographing. A lot of times when I’m walking down the street, I’ll talk to people—maybe this seems so obvious—I’ll talk to people that don’t even have anything to do with photography. You’re out trying to experience the place. I guess it’s so fundamental, so basic, but I notice sometimes that gets overlooked. For me, photography is more about wandering and exploring, human stories, unusual serendipitous moments that make some interesting comment about life on this planet.”

McCurry frequently refers to his photographic role as that of the wanderer. While his images represent a perfect storm of composition, lighting, color, human emotion, decisive moment and perhaps any number of additional intangible qualities, he says he’s not particularly conscious of them. His focus is much simpler.
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30 Comments

  1. Gary Hess makes this comment

    Wednesday, 10 March 2010

    An exceptional article by an exceptional photographer. McCurry has been one of my favorites for years and this piece makes it clear why his work has such a timeless element. You may be looking at a photograph, but you are seeing so much more than that in Steve's work.

  2. Scattisportivi.it makes this comment

    Friday, 12 March 2010

    An outstanding article, I think we really have to focus more on emotions than technique. ...I was out with some people, and they kind of raced up to this person and started clicking and they didn’t say hello. They didn’t say hello, they didn’t say goodbye, there wasn’t any kind of communication or niceties.”

  3. Vaughn Hart makes this comment

    Friday, 12 March 2010

    I find from having read and studied most of Steve's books that his connection to his subjects seems to be on a much deeper level than most. When you see a McCurry portrait you know he took the photo. His portraits are clean and you can feel the human connection with the person in the picture.

  4. Nadeem khawar makes this comment

    Saturday, 13 March 2010

    An outstanding article of an outstanding Photographer. He is master without a doubt. I really love his work and take guidelines from it. I will say congratulations for his new Book. He is great. best regards. Nadeem Khawar.

  5. Kantilal Doobal makes this comment

    Friday, 19 March 2010

    Debating Budhist Monks indulge in fight I think, is not picture of Karntak as mentioned might be of north east India or Tibet?

  6. Phil Palmer makes this comment

    Saturday, 20 March 2010

    The way Steve McCurry relates to what he's photographing is similar, as I see it, to what David Muench was advocating in landscape photography in the January/February issue: "Put your ego and purpose aside. Listen. Breathe. Open up. Feel the earth. Respect everything that comes to you -- an urge, an impulse, a sense of the megical. Then start photographing." Thanks for both articles.

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  8. Anne Harai makes this comment

    Tuesday, 30 March 2010

    Reading Steve's article was a nice confirmation that it's really about the picture, not the gear. I've done a lot of travel photography - if you don't let yourself get lost in the moment, I feel that something's missing.

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