Steven McCurry

    Steven McCurry has a multitude of different themes within his work, as well as focuses on a number of different settings and lightings. I think that within any artists there are common ideas and characteristics that we can find in their work. The thing that sticks out the most to me is that he explores a lot of different cultures and shows the reality, as well as showing individuals and catching people within the moment. His art is beautiful for these reasons, you can tell that he likes to catch people in the moment and things don’t look posed. Another similarity that is common within his work is the amount of symbolism. 

McCurry catches the beautiful moments in life. Everyone has issues they are going through but his work portrays how individuals with issues make the best out of the situations that they are in. The little things are what matter. In much of his work the individuals do not have the most money but when presented with something small, it means the world to them. I think that personally this made me take a step back from life as a whole and makes be appreciate the little things more instead of being caught up with stress, confusion, and the things going on in my life. 

As I stated symbolism is something that is portrayed often within McCurry’s work. There are a multitude of different interpretations and perspectives on a single given image. I think that his work opens up so many ideas and makes you think into places you may not have thought of before. I think that he also uses people with dramatic clothing and makeup seem so simplistic. It helps me come to the realization that we really can’t judge a book by its cover. There are so many things going on with the given individual, but the image and photograph is so simple.  I think that the reason that McCurry is so well at creating so much meaning within a simple image is because he breaks down the body. He keeps all body parts normal and unfocused other than the one that he is trying to capture and focus on. 

As I stated McCurry has captured so many different cultures and put them into beautiful images. This is something that really caught my eye. I personally love traveling because I love experiencing different cultures, in terms of food, norms, people, and many other things. His images show the differences, beauty, and reality within different cultures. The images can be used as educational but are also something that catch your eyes, the colors, the people, and the setting are all things that stand out and make you want more.