Afghan Girl By Steve McCurry

I think this is possibly up there with the most famous photos ever taken. For me it's the power in the eyes, they are literally a window into the soul of a girl who lost both parents in a helicopter attack and who trekked for days with her grandma before reaching the run down refugee camp in Pakistan where Steve took the photo.
If you love this photo you should watch 'Finding the Afghan Girl', most of it is on YouTube and it documents Steve's journey to locate her 18 years later
 
Iconic photo and a superb follow up story.
I think it highlights such cultural differences, many many people after having their photo seen worldwide would crave fame yet for this lady it was just another day and her life continued along the same path....I hope nearly 10 years on shes living a fulfilling (fulfilling to her) life
 
its a nice portrait of a young girl but thats it for me. no better than a lot of other images out there. The power of the media makes it more than it is.
 
Just one of the amazing photos Steve mcurry has taken. He has a stunning book out A3 size with loads of his work. I flicked through it and was in awe of the portraits in there, going to go buy it next time I'm in town.
 
Our other hobby is flying kites (usually big ones) and one of our Dutch friends from the kite festival circuit made this kite based on this portrait

Portsmouth2010-080.jpg


It's a Edo kite which measures about 8'x4' and is made of coloured ripstop appliqued together to create the image. He made three in this series after being inspired by a documentary on the Discovery channel.
 
Some very good comments regards to this image! What do other people think about it? X
 
A beautiful yet haunting portrait.

The girl seems to be looking through the photographer as if he wasn't there. That haunting look in her eyes hints at the horrors she has witnessed.

Her dirty face and ripped clothes tell a story and the colours work so well. The green eyes against the perfectly blurred green background and a nice diagonal from the eyes to the ripped clothes on shoulder revealing a further green patch.

There may be other more iconic photos of the last century, but I can't think of a more iconic portrait than this.

Surely it must be photography's Mona Lisa.
 
Notice that the color of her eyes is reflected in the wall making it color complementary too.
 
A truly lovely image, one of the best ever.
One night at a club that I attended many moons ago; this beautiful image was the subject of discussion. My lasting memory of that night is. If it where your image would you have spotted out the speck of dust at the inner corner of her right eye?
Rhodese.
 
A really great photo but I wouldnt say a masterpiece.. Ive seen this so many times its getting a bit old now. First time must have been in the cover of national geographic back in the day?
 
I've always loved this photo too. Tried giving it a modern make-over in watercolour paints and pencils but Steve McCurry's original is impossible to improve on.


AfghanGirl-HQ by Papi11on, on Flickr
 
The gaze. Lots of academic articles have been written on the gaze.. and quite rightly so.
 
Pookeyhead said:
The gaze. Lots of academic articles have been written on the gaze.. and quite rightly so.
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why?


Presumably they are a load of twaddle.

Presumably the photographer didn't speak Afgan to direct the portrait, so whilst it is an excellent capture on a very punchy film, this is essentially a shot of good fortune.. That is the photographer was there, and was observant, and got lucky on the subject.

Like most young women, she looks fairly unblemished.... something that is hi-lighted even more about the environment

This is simply where PJ crosses posed & constructed slightly
 
Richard King said:
why?


Presumably they are a load of twaddle.

Presumably the photographer didn't speak Afgan to direct the portrait, so whilst it is an excellent capture on a very punchy film, this is essentially a shot of good fortune.. That is the photographer was there, and was observant, and got lucky on the subject.

Like most young women, she looks fairly unblemished.... something that is hi-lighted even more about the environment

This is simply where PJ crosses posed & constructed slightly
Click to expand...

What's you contender for 'best shot in the history of history'?

[thinks] perhaps we should have a thread on this? [/thinks]
 
jon ryan said:
What's you contender for 'best shot in the history of history'?

[thinks] perhaps we should have a thread on this? [/thinks]
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not sure

This one is up there.. the photographer clearly knew what impact it would have

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...-photo-vietnam-war-turns-40-article-1.1088201

This one must be up there:http://www.empowernetwork.com/infinitysandip/neil-armstrong-landing-on-the-moon/

As would this one
http://www.list.co.uk/article/22450...e-scott-shackleton-and-antarctic-photography/
 
Richard King said:
why?


Presumably they are a load of twaddle.

Presumably the photographer didn't speak Afgan to direct the portrait, so whilst it is an excellent capture on a very punchy film, this is essentially a shot of good fortune.. That is the photographer was there, and was observant, and got lucky on the subject.

Like most young women, she looks fairly unblemished.... something that is hi-lighted even more about the environment

This is simply where PJ crosses posed & constructed slightly
Click to expand...

Written by someone who never been an photojournalist :D
 
This is certainly a photograph that makes you think!
 
I've seen it before and agree with most that it is a a superb image, whatever the reasons.
 
Richard King said:
why?


Presumably they are a load of twaddle.

Presumably the photographer didn't speak Afgan to direct the portrait, so whilst it is an excellent capture on a very punchy film, this is essentially a shot of good fortune.. That is the photographer was there, and was observant, and got lucky on the subject.

Like most young women, she looks fairly unblemished.... something that is hi-lighted even more about the environment

This is simply where PJ crosses posed & constructed slightly
Click to expand...

Can you honestly say you have absolutely no emotional connection with that image whatsoever? If so I'm utterly astounded.
 
PMN said:
Can you honestly say you have absolutely no emotional connection with that image whatsoever? If so I'm utterly astounded.
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Prepare to be astounded then.

It's just a good photo of a girl with green eyes against a green back drop, to me that's it.

If it had been taken exactly like this but in a New York studio, would everyone still rant and rave about it, probably not. People seem to think that because it was taken in a certain location it make it special, but there's nowt in the photo portraying where it was taken, without the text and story it could have been shot anywhere, at anytime.

Just a nice head and shoulder portrait of a young girl.
 
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PMN said:
Can you honestly say you have absolutely no emotional connection with that image whatsoever? If so I'm utterly astounded.
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Nope. The photo is a very good portrait of a young woman. It does little to show the context.

Now this famous photograph, taken by The war photojournalist Nick Ut sadly oozes emotion and feelings in the extreme

TrangBang.jpg

Nick Ut / The Associated Press
 
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Photodiva said:
Afghan Girl is a good portrait, but as is said, doesn't really offer any context.
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I agree that it doesn't offer lots of obvious context but if you look closely there are a hell of a lot of clues to her life:

- Ripped clothing
- A deep vulnerable expression almost souless
- Small dirt marks on the face
- Unkempt hair

Which without knowing a lot more about the image would lead me to suspect she was poor (ripped clothes), had been through some traumatic event (deep expression) and maybe is nomadic or homeless (unkempt, dirty). As far as straight up head and shoulders portraits go this has a lot of subtle visual clues.
 
I'm torn. It's a great portrait, but is it one of those images that to really work needs the accompanying text. Do it stand on its own and I don't think it does.
I.e. The shot of the hunter in his room of stuffed animals in last years wildlife comp needed no further explanation.
 
Afghan Girl is probably my favourite photograph. Mainly because of the eyes - so haunted yet defiant. IMO, it doesn't need the viewer to know the back story to be effective - let's face it, its first viewing was as the cover shot for the NG magazine and nobody knew her story before they bought the mag!

Nick Ut's image is more powerful but I hope nobody gets pleasure from viewing it...
 
jacob12_1993 said:
I agree that it doesn't offer lots of obvious context but if you look closely there are a hell of a lot of clues to her life:

- Ripped clothing
- A deep vulnerable expression almost souless
- Small dirt marks on the face
- Unkempt hair

Which without knowing a lot more about the image would lead me to suspect she was poor (ripped clothes), had been through some traumatic event (deep expression) and maybe is nomadic or homeless (unkempt, dirty). As far as straight up head and shoulders portraits go this has a lot of subtle visual clues.
Click to expand...

I agree absolutely 1000%. There are tons of clues in the image that put it into context, it just requires a little work on the part of the viewer to see them which personally I think makes it a deeper image in some ways than the example Richard gives. With no disrespect intended to Nick Ut, anyone could have turned their camera at that point and fired the shutter and they'd have ended up with an image every bit as emotional as his because it's such an emotional situation. The Afghan Girl is such an emotional image purely because of how Steve McCurry shot it.

They're such different photos there's actually no real comparison between the two.
 
Par of the quality for me is the girl displays no artifice in her expression which is rare in our image rich culture, where 'selfies' must rank near the top photo subjects posted online. As if you are looking at someone with no filter present.
 
This is probably my favourite photo of all time.

There are very few photos which say so little (it is just a head and shoulders portrait after all), but at the first time of viewing, lead you to ask so many questions. Who is she? Where is this? What is her story? For me, that's what makes it so unique - I want to know more.

Nick UT's is heartbreaking, but it's a war photographers bread and butter. Totally unfair to compare the two as their both excellent in their own right.
 
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