Steve McCurry after Kodachrome: "I don't use film anymore"

Ken Nadvornick · Jun 19, 2013

Background for those who may not have already seen...

Dead Link Removed
By David Friend, Photographs by Steve McCurry
Vanity Fair online, February 9, 2011

"I've been shooting digital for years, but I don't think you can make a better photograph under certain conditions than you can with Kodachrome... Kodachrome had more poetry in it, a softness, an elegance." —Steve McCurry

Ken

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 20, 2013

Fantastic assortment of bears and mo's. Heavens, probably without even trying...

lxdude · Jun 20, 2013

StoneNYC said:
She was angry with him at having to show we face and scared, but in her culture she did as a man asked, that's why she has those haunting eyes, it's anger and fear. She was pulled out of we classroom for the shot to get better light and he chose her specifically. It almost ruins it when you read the full story, but the image is what inspired me as a photographer. It was on my wall from the time I was 12 till 28... I also own the original national geographic periodical (somewhere). I might be obsessed. Also the original slide is not quite as saturated, thank the touch up guys for that.

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

When that issue came out, the cover made people stop in their tracks. I still remember where I was when I first saw it, to give an idea of how strong an impression it made. I can say that about no other image. San Francisco, Safeway store at Bush and Larkin, magazine rack on the right as you walk through the entrance.
I picked up a copy and just stared at it. It was remarkable to see the reactions of others, stunned and then drawn to it. I of course bought the copy.

I have been interested to see how differently the color has been rendered when printed. Sometimes all the nuance is lost, with green rendered as blue and vice versa. Most amazing was the multiple color in the child's eyes, usually mostly lost. I have seen a photographic print of it which was superb, and the closest rendition on printed matter I have seen of it was a Nikon poster.

Few pictures really affect me. That one did. Not because of its gorgeous color, but because it smacked me with the reality of what it is like to be a child refugee.

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 20, 2013

lxdude, that picture affected everybody, but especially showed the human face of a country incessantly at war. The emotive effect was not confined to the USA. It was picked up in India, Pakistan, Russia... the earliest form of "going viral" long before the internet happened along to do things like that in a split second. I think NG at once stage produced a large poster for sale of this image? In Doctors surgeries now and then, well-thumbed issues of McCurry's NG (1985?) can still be found, with that colour-perfect, clear-eyed Pashtun girl staring point-blank at the viewer. Even the web pictures are not a patch on the original (and there are some appalling parodies of the famous work). I agree that I too would like to see how the Kodachrome slide has fared over the ensuing three decades. I wonder if McCurry has actually had any printed, for himself, friends or colleagues? He doesn't even look like Steve McCurry, now 63 I think. An interesting website that if anything showed the natural colour of Kodachrome that drew millions of people to it.

clayne · Jun 20, 2013

StoneNYC said:
I think going digital is about getting the images out safely, you can upload via remote satellite feed if need be... To get the images of the afghan girl out, Steve had to hand sew the film into his jacket that he wore through security at the airport.. He sewed the strips into the lining of the jacket in complete darkness remember... Not easy)...

Digital upload is way easier

Do you have a reference for this?

lxdude · Jun 20, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
Background for those who may not have already seen...

Dead Link Removed
By David Friend, Photographs by Steve McCurry
Vanity Fair online, February 9, 2011

"I've been shooting digital for years, but I don't think you can make a better photograph under certain conditions than you can with Kodachrome... Kodachrome had more poetry in it, a softness, an elegance." Steve McCurry

Ken

He has also referred to it as
"The Gold Standard"

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 20, 2013

McCurry was honored with theKnight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France around 25th May. That's quite a gong.

Richard S. (rich815) · Jun 20, 2013

clayne said:
Do you have a reference for this?

I'm wondering the same thing. I've never heard that about this photo. And the wiki about it makes no such reference to this either:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Girl

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 20, 2013

Why should it make reference to something that was potentially deadly in that time, place and era? What if it was a secret, and remains so? What if McCurry himself would decline to answer? Lots of places to uncover the truth, but Wiki is not one of them.
McCurry's own biography may also shed clues on what actually happened — and a few other things too.

Richard S. (rich815) · Jun 20, 2013

Poisson Du Jour said:
Why should it make reference to something that was potentially deadly in that time, place and era? What if it was a secret, and remains so? What if McCurry himself would decline to answer? Lots of places to uncover the truth, but Wiki is not one of them.
McCurry's own biography may also shed clues on what actually happened — and a few other things too.

Truth or not I'd think such a interesting aspect to that photo would show up in the Wikipedia. And again this is first I'd heard he smuggled the film out in strips in dark sewn parts of clothing. Really? Exposed but undeveloped strips of Kodachrome sewn into his clothes?

removed account4 · Jun 20, 2013

i heard that it wasn't sewn in his clothes at all, but more like kopi luwak
either way, its a good urban legend ..

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 20, 2013

Well, ask Steve McCurry...

clayne · Jun 21, 2013

Sounds like BS to me.

Newt_on_Swings · Jun 21, 2013

He's the only photographer I know that McDonalds has named 2 burgers after... The McCurry and the Mega McCurry.

removed account4 · Jun 21, 2013

Newt_on_Swings said:
He's the only photographer I know that McDonalds has named 2 burgers after... The McCurry and the Mega McCurry.

Marc B. · Jun 21, 2013

http://www.phaidon.com/store/photog...stories-behind-the-photographs-9780714864624/

Steve McCurry, 'Untold' - The Stories Behind The Photographs/

http://www.thephoblographer.com/201...otography-history-the-birth-of-steve-mccurry/

*text excerpt* Steve McCurry (b. 2/24/1950) has lead one truly fascinating career as a photographer from smuggling film out of conflict-riddled Afghanistan by sewing the undeveloped rolls into the lining of his clothes to shooting one of the most famous and recognizable images ever captured...

http://photography.about.com/od/famousphotographers/a/stevemccurrybiography.htm

*text excerpt* His first foray into photojournalism was his coverage of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. McCurry disguised himself in native garb and he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. He hid his film by sewing it into his clothes and was able to smuggle these shots out providing some of the first shots ever seen of the conflict. His coverage earned him the coveted Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad.

I don't think McCurry had to smuggle any of his images/film from the Pakistani refugee camps,
ie...(the Afghan 'Mona Lisa' or Afghan Girl), but apparently he has spoken of needing to hide film/images
that he took during the Russian/Soviet involved conflict-era in Afghanistan.

...To get the images of the afghan girl out, Steve had to hand sew the film into his jacket that he wore through security at the airport...He sewed the strips into the lining of the jacket in complete darkness remember... Not easy)...

Do you have a reference for this?

I guess we'll just have to buy his book, 'Untold'...due for release in Sep, 2013.

Marc

StoneNYC · Jun 22, 2013

Marc B. said:
http://www.phaidon.com/store/photog...stories-behind-the-photographs-9780714864624/

http://www.thephoblographer.com/201...otography-history-the-birth-of-steve-mccurry/

http://photography.about.com/od/famousphotographers/a/stevemccurrybiography.htm

I don't think McCurry had to smuggle any of his images/film from the Pakistani refugee camps,
ie...(the Afghan 'Mona Lisa' or Afghan Girl), but apparently he has spoken of needing to hide film/images
that he took during the Russian/Soviet involved conflict-era in Afghanistan.

I guess we'll just have to buy his book, 'Untold'...due for release in Sep, 2013.

Marc

Thanks for finding that Marc, I'm fairly certain I read it in the second edition of NG where the afghan girl is featured on the cover 17 years later, it mentioned it in that article if I recall correctly, but I can't seem to find either copy... :/ it's buried somewhere...

So thanks.

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

lxdude · Jun 24, 2013

jnanian said:
thanks for the dopeslap xldude
- J

Hey, being slapped by a dope ain't always bad!

batwister · Jul 3, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NLgd6isBAoM#at=156

I had a thought while watching this, seeing McCurry walk around with the Nikon. For the type of work he does, more important than any notion of quality/craft/presentation is the importance of 'being there'. Using a familiar camera, like the Nikon DSLRs, there is less of an imposition when making intimate portraits of people on the fly. He becomes more of an everyman.

George Papantoniou · Jul 4, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
Background for those who may not have already seen...

Dead Link Removed
By David Friend, Photographs by Steve McCurry
Vanity Fair online, February 9, 2011

"I've been shooting digital for years, but I don't think you can make a better photograph under certain conditions than you can with Kodachrome... Kodachrome had more poetry in it, a softness, an elegance." Steve McCurry

Ken

Thanks for the link, interesting series of portraits and street scenes. It is really impressive to think that any photographer could achieve this, meaning making 32 such high quality pictures on ONE SINGLE roll of 35mm film !! How much planning and effort would it take ?? Hope that this is the case though and he didn't cheat (by shooting 20 rolls instead of one, for example, which would sound much, much more possible to my humble ears). After all, it was THE LAST roll of Kodachrome, wasn't it ?

Unfortunately, I see that the Indian and North-American people photographed do not display their mouth cavities, therefore we cannot inspect their dental condition and so judge them regarding the degree of the civilization we have to rank them to. I am sorry not to be able to comment on whether they brush their teeth or if they're assholes or not.

StoneNYC · Jul 4, 2013

George Papantoniou said:
Thanks for the link, interesting series of portraits and street scenes. It is really impressive to think that any photographer could achieve this, meaning making 32 such high quality pictures on ONE SINGLE roll of 35mm film !! How much planning and effort would it take ?? Hope that this is the case though and he didn't cheat (by shooting 20 rolls instead of one, for example, which would sound much, much more possible to my humble ears). After all, it was THE LAST roll of Kodachrome, wasn't it ?

Unfortunately, I see that the Indian and North-American people photographed do not display their mouth cavities, therefore we cannot inspect their dental condition and so judge them regarding the degree of the civilization we have to rank them to. I am sorry not to be able to comment on whether they brush their teeth or if they're assholes or not.

It was the last roll produced but far from the last roll processed... However 4 of my rolls were some of the last processes hehe, I got special permission (with one other photographer) to shoot after the deadline

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

George Papantoniou · Jul 4, 2013

StoneNYC said:
It was the last roll produced but far from the last roll processed... However 4 of my rolls were some of the last processes hehe, I got special permission (with one other photographer) to shoot after the deadline

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I got that (it was mentioned in another post), what I don't really get is if the photographs presented in the portfolio (the McCurry's one) are ALL made using ONE roll of film, or a lot of them...

Just curious...

StoneNYC · Jul 4, 2013

George Papantoniou said:
Yeah, I got that (it was mentioned in another post), what I don't really get is if the photographs presented in the portfolio (the McCurry's one) are ALL made using ONE roll of film, or a lot of them...

Just curious...

On that website are just the last roll, he just kept the last roll in a spare camera and traveled with it as far as I understand.

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

lxdude · Jul 4, 2013

George Papantoniou said:
Yeah, I got that (it was mentioned in another post), what I don't really get is if the photographs presented in the portfolio (the McCurry's one) are ALL made using ONE roll of film, or a lot of them...

Just curious...

It was all one roll.

Steve McCurry after Kodachrome: "I don't use film anymore"

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency