GUP - Guide to Unique Photography

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It's All Mixed: An Interview with Steve McCurry

November 13, 2013 Author: Katherine Oktober Matthews Tags: Interviews American photographer Steve McCurry (b. 1950) has created some of the most recognisable images in the history of photography, including his iconic 1984 image Afghan Girl. Hes shot photo projects around the world for National Geographic and has been a member of the Magnum photo agency since 1986. More recently, in 2010 he had the opportunity to shoot the last roll of Kodachrome transparency lm that rolled off the production belt. He was in Amsterdam to promote his new book from Phaidon, Untold: The Story Behind the Photos, and took the time to sit down with GUPs online editor Katherine Oktober Matthews to speak about working hard, keeping the right frame of mind, and managing expectations.

Youve been travelling around the world to take pictures since your youth. Why do you suppose these two things, photography and restlessness, so often go hand in hand? People that want to examine the world, that want to wander and explore, they can write, they can photograph it just depends on what your inclination is. You could travel the world and be an architect or a ballerina! I think it has more to do with curiosity. With photography and travel I dont know, sometimes those two things collide and all kinds of things happen.

Since you tend to take an intuitive approach to photographing youve said before that your working process is basically to walk around and get a feeling for the place is there anything you can do to help serendipity land in your favour? Well, you need to be in the right frame of mind and be curious. I think that pretty much says everything right there.
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What is the right frame of mind? To be relaxed and open. I think its honestly that simple for me. I cant talk about somebody else, and their process and how they approach it. You need to sort of calm your mind and allow the present to take over and to not be preoccupied with other things.

How do you handle the times when you dont have the right frame of mind? Is it possible to force it? Conditions in life are never ideal. You know, theres times we get up in the morning, and we think, I dont think Im going to go to work today. Gonna take the day off. In fact, take the week off! Gonna go to Spain and relax on the beach. You have to push through that. You have to adjust your thinking: theres no option. You have to get up and get out the door. Some days its raining outside and its cold. You might think, Ill just stay inside and read a good book. You have to push through that and just do it.

Does that mean that hard work is more important than passion for getting it done? Its a mix. Its not so simple. You need passion and fortitude. Sometimes things are not ideal and you have to power through that, but I think its the same for anybody! Thats life! Literally, thats life! I mean, sometimes you think, Do I want to go to that dinner tonight? Or that meeting? I dont know, maybe Ill just cancel it maybe Ill just cancel everything! (he laughs) Know what I mean? And theres other times when you think, My God this is incredible, I cant believe it! Im the luckiest person alive. So, its mixed but, again, every human being that ever lived in the history of the planet has the same experience, its no different. Theres a whole spectrum of people who have talent and commitment and passion, but its all on a scale we all have different levels of those components. Some people are highly gifted and they just arent interested in anything nothing! Ive known people like that. Brilliant, but theyd rather not do anything.

What is it that gets you personally out the door when its cold and raining and youd rather not? I know that once I get out the door and on the street, maybe Ill feel differently. Maybe. Lets try it. Get out the door, walk around, have a cup of coffee, play with a dog, talk to somebody. Thats the hope. As opposed to saying, Well Im just gonna skip it today.

Do you let yourself skip it sometimes though? No.

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No?! Just no? Like I said, generally, once you get the wheels moving, you come around. Sometimes were productive and sometimes were not, but you really have to average it out. Some days are good, some days arent, and you just have to understand that and relax. Its like playing roulette: eventually 22 is going to come up. I mean, even Shakespeare probably had an editing process.

So, not every photo can come up a 22. Yeah, not every picture is brilliant! A writer might write something that which ends up just staying in the notebook, and for a photographer you photograph some things that you know are just as a record, or something that you know isnt brilliant, but you get the wheels moving. Am I going to wait for the perfect picture before I start shooting? Well, how many perfect pictures are there in a lifetime? Get out and start examining the world, start probing, and eventually

As youve travelled around and photographed other people and their experiences over the years, what has this taught you about your own life and your own experience? Just that were all connected, in that were here on this planet at this particular time and we all have to interact, and get along. Try to coexist in a good way. And, do it right now, cause were gonna be dead, and another group is going come in and to replace us. So, lets try to take care of the planet and lets try not to kill each other, so that we can do whatever it is that we want to do. Whats the ultimate goal here? Its to enjoy this brief life that we have, and make it as fullling and worthwhile as possible.

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Mother and child looking in through a taxi window, Bombay, India, 1993

You describe people as fundamentally the same, no matter where you are. What are the commonalities of humankind, as you know them? We all like to laugh. We all want to be respected, we all want to be loved, we all want to have friends and family to some degree. Most people look forward to their day off, so they can go shing or relax or do whatever people do. People want to be appreciated. If you tip a taxi driver in Beijing, he appreciates it. If you respect a taxi driver in Cairo talk to him, treat him as an equal and not as an object or something hell respond to that. When people are disrespected, they get upset, and that manifests itself in various ways. But, you take a taxi driver anywhere in the world, and they want to improve their life thats what Im talking about when I talk about this commonality of humanity.

In terms of photography, which can by its nature be an intrusive thing, how are you best able to avoid being seen as disrespectful? Each moment, each situation, you have to evaluate case by case. You ask yourself from one moment to the next: is this the right thing to do, is this being respectful? You do your best to try and keep peace and keep your mind calm, and I think I do that most of the time. Theres occasions where someone might get upset, but thats pretty rare. Life is swirling on around us all the time and sometimes you want to walk away from a situation. You just have to judge each moment on its own. Maybe thats too vague, but you want to
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photograph life as its unfolding, so you cant ask everybody every time you want to take a photograph, Can I have permission to photograph the back of your head on the subway? you know? Theyre gonna say fuck you! You just have to evaluate each moment.

Bicycles hanging on the side of a train, West Bengal, India, 1983

By now, youve been photographing for more than thirty years. What sort of things do you still struggle with, or what is still a challenge to you? The same things that challenged me twenty or thirty years ago! Its just that I happen to be older. Its not that anything changes, its just that time has moved on. Theres always struggles. I mean, life is struggle. Whoever you are, wherever you are, thats just part of being alive. Those things dont change just because of some level of success. You still have to work and struggle. Effort and reward theyre all intertwined. You cant really look at struggle as necessarily a negative thing. Or work. The word work can seem kind of like drudgery, but you cant look at it like that. But the challenges and struggles and obstacles they all remain the same.

Which is what, for you?

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Trying to do the best I can, and trying to make my life as fullling as I can, and all that. Its so mundane! My life, your life. Were all basically trying to get through the day the best we can. You know, like you have to do laundry theres a level of pick-and-shovel work to life, and a monotony to it, but thats the same for everybody on the planet. Even the people that we view as rich and famous they go on the treadmill, they have to eat certain foods. Life isnt always at a fever pitch, and if you accept that and understand it and embrace it, then things are good. Actually, life is pretty good. Everything isnt at that peak, but thats okay. You cant have expectations all the time and complain that my life is boring blah blah blah well, thats life! Thats it! Welcome to Planet Earth, you know? You have to accept it and embrace it, and then, its cool.

Over the years, youve clearly seen some terrible poverty, conicts and other difcult conditions and behaviors, and yet your photographs seem to be always imbued with a real humanity. When you see the worst of the worst, does it ever get hard to like people? No, I mean, life is mixed, right? Weve all had terrible times in our lives. Some days are good, some days are not good, and as you travel through life with your camera, you see the good and the bad. Its complex but theres also simplicity to it, you know? Its not all beautiful and its not all terrible, and you could say the same thing about yourself: theres things in our personality that we like and things we dont like, so the whole thing is mixed. But you have to try to understand that its pretty much the same for everybody. So dont try to compare yourself too much with other people, just try to get through the day in the best possible way, knowing that, in the end, its always going to be mixed. When you know that and accept it, you can relax a bit and not try to obsess over the fact that life isnt perfect. Thats what Ive learned. Because if youre expecting perfection, then youre always going to be disappointed.

Steve McCurrys new book, Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs, is available from Phaidon.
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