Peter Fetterman Gallery welcomes “Steve McCurry” as our featured Main Gallery exhibition opening
January 15th, 2022.
Steve McCurry is universally recognized as one of today's finest image-makers and has won many of
photography's top awards. Best known for his evocative color photography, McCurry captures the essence of
human struggle and joy. As a member of Magnum Photos since 1986, he has sought and found the
unforgettable; many of his images have become modern icons, his most popular photograph of the
unidentified Afghan refugee girl with the striking green eyes. Born in Philadelphia, McCurry graduated cum
laude from the College of Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. After working at a
newspaper for two years, he left for India to freelance.
It was in India that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life. "If you wait," he realized, "people will forget
your camera and the soul will drift up into view." His career was launched when he disguised in native garb
and crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When
he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes and images that would be published around the
world which were among the first to show the conflict there. His coverage won the Robert Capa Gold Medal
for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad, an award dedicated to photographers exhibiting exceptional
courage and enterprise.
Steve McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including Burma, Sri Lanka, Beirut,
Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War, the former Yugoslavia, and continuing coverage of Afghanistan
and Tibet. He focuses on the human consequences of war, not only showing what war impresses on the
landscape, but rather, on the human face.