Steve McCurry; In the Shadow of Mountains - Hardcover

Steve McCurry; Kerry William Purcell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714846406 ISBN 13: 9780714846408

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2007

Synopsis

McCurry's photographs eloquently illustrate a country of contradictions, where the contemporary battles with the ancient and the spiritual clashes with the secular. Striking portraits of men and women, are presented alongside timeless images of children at play and shepherds tending their flocks and ancient sandstone cities are contrasted with shanty-towns constructed from tattered tarpaulins. The famous mountainous landscapes and ancient temples are shown together with scenes of daily life, such as a bread seller at his kiosk or traders at a market. McCurry's unique ability to cross boundaries of language and culture to capture stories of human experience is fully exhibited in this remarkable new collection of images.

About this title

Review:

"McCurry can make the hellish look heavenly - incredible photographs that change the way we look at our world - haunting and provocative images."―The Sunday Times Magazine

"These beautiful and often uplifting images, in finest documentary tradition, cross the boundaries of language and culture to capture the significant and the smaller stories of mankind."―Daily Telegraph

"All the photographs selected for this edition are perfect compositions and the book is a must for anyone interested in appreciating the natural beauty of Asia and colour travel photography."―Tribune

"A moving document of daily life amidst a staggering physical landscape and a politically turbulent one."―Traveller

"Extraordinary... Stunning... It is McCurry's skill as a portrait photographer that makes this book so compelling... images as strange and beautiful as any Van Gogh painting. This is a book that is hard to put down."―Sunday Telegraph

"From frenetic street scenes to lyrical portraits, [McCurry's] work captures the drama of life in a country he describes as "at once pastoral and chaotic... welcoming yet deeply inhospitable"."―Financial Times

Synopsis:

Steve McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq war, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines and the Gulf war, but his continuing coverage of Afghanistan is perhaps his greatest achievement. It was with his first images of Afghanistan that McCurry established his reputation as a photojournalist. In 1979, disguised in native dress, McCurry crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan, shortly before Soviet troops invaded in support of the failing Marxist government. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes, images which would be published around the world as among the first to show the conflict there. His coverage won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional courage and enterprise. Throughout his career McCurry has returned to Afghanistan time and time again - under different regimes and at times of civil unrest - to document the people, the landscape and the heritage of this troubled, yet captivating, country. Each image is accompanied by a brief text providing geographical and historical background.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0714846406
• ISBN 13: 9780714846408
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 152