The Unguarded Moment
Steve McCurry
As a photographer, I am sustained by the rhythm and movement of light as it plays across scenes of everyday life: the routines of herding and fishing, the chanting of prayers and the hawking of wares. The sequence of images that follows is not tied to specific events or cultures, but is instead suggestive of the vast tapestry of human experience and my chance encounters with silhouette and shadow, water and light. I wanted to express the visceral sense of beauty experienced during my travels when the shock of the strange rubs against the delight of the familiar.
Preview
These frictions - between past and present, the sacred and the profane, the domestic and the exotic - invigorate me. My impulse is to share them, to draw a circle of stillness around them so that they can touch and inspire others.
When people ask me what they should do to become a photographer, I seldom mention cameras or technique. I say "If you want to be a photographer, first leave home." And as Paul Theroux advises, "Go as far as you can. Become a stranger in a strange land. Acquire humility."
In the end, I can't imagine another way of being. My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport. Here are the results of this restless curiosity - a selection of those unguarded moments I was fortunate enough to witness.
Steve McCurry
