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Despite this, the book contains some of his his most beautiful works. These include, of course, the famous Afghan Girl who is our cover star, and a less famous but also very beautiful (if in a less haunting way) picture of her graces the back cover, one of her holding her garment over her mouth with her scared, striking eyes peering out over the top. Other personal favourites of mine include the boy from Bombay covered in red, with his dark eyes looking black as night, the old man from Kashmir with his hennaed beard, another little girl in Afghanistan, from Ghazni, and one or two portraits from his Monsoon collection. There are one or two in here which certainly dont fit the feel of this collection and are rather out of place, however all in all the content is good.
Unfortunately the book is so badly laid out that it really doesnt do its beautiful content justice. A little more thought put into this would have resulted in a much better book.
McCurry takes photographs for National Geographic and is a member of the legendary Magnum photo agency (see some of the outstanding work of Magnum photographers in various books on or by the agency - the best is "In Our Time" by William Manchester - or on the individual members such as Cartier-Bresson). The cover shot is the famous one McCurry took in 1985 of a young Afgan girl with strikingly beautiful green eyes, which appeared on the cover of National Geographic and then became well known all over the World - except to the girl herself (whom McCurry managed to trace recently and learnt of the terrible hardship she had endured under the Taliban).
McCurry achieves highly saturated colour in the finished prints, either in the photographic (polarising filter?) or printing processes (die-transfer?), which produces amazingly vivid pictures as if shot in the magic golden light of sunset or dawn when the sun is low on the horizon. The subjects have a hauntingly vivid effect on the viewer, whether bright children or wrinkled old people, although the initial charm is sometimes offset by the squalor and poverty of their surroundings. It's a book to dip into, rather than work your way through in a single session, as the similar style of each shot becomes monotonous after a while. It's a pity there's no background information (other than a place and date) about how each shot came about or a little technical data on how each was taken (camera, film, settings etc) which interests all keen photographers among us. Still, it's great value and highly recommended (now have a look at "In Our Time"!)
It was a bit smaller than expected but this doesn't detract from its overall... Read more
Book is an excellent reminder of some of the stunning images on display (go see it... Read more
It came early in the post and I would definitely recommend the seller.
Thank you!
Listmania!
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