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Lavonne Leon '93
This spring, Steve McCurry, one of the world's best-known photographers, visited Punahou as part of the school's Creative Grates program, supported by the Class of 1950 Distinguished Speakers Fund. He spent nearly a week on campus, engaging with faculty, students and the community through classroom visits, meetings and a gallery exhibit in Bishop Learning Commons.
“Steve is more than a photographer,” says Alex Selarke, an Academy Art faculty member who has taught photography at Punahou for nearly 30 years. “He's a very intentional artist. His photographs aren't just landscapes, or just photojournalism, or just portraits. They capture relationships. The relationships between individuals, with cultures, with the environment, and that has been his life's theme.”
World-renowned photographer Steve McCurry participated in a variety of activities during his visit to Punahou, including a book signing session at an exhibit of his renowned work in the Bishop Learning Commons and a well-attended talk with community members at Thurston Memorial Chapel.
A popular figure in the photography world for nearly five decades, McCurry has been awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal for his photography and multiple World Press Photo awards for his powerful storytelling. He was knighted by the French Minister of Culture and was awarded the Centenary Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Royal Photographic Society in London. His connections with the masters of color photography meant he was handpicked to shoot the last roll of Kodachrome film.
A life in pictures
McCurry is the man behind what CNN has called “the world's most famous photograph”: In June 1985, the piercing green gaze of 12-year-old refugee Sharbat Gula (“Afghan Girl”) appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine, focusing the world's attention on the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the resulting refugee crisis.
“Afghan Girl” made an impression on a generation, many of whom say it was the photo that first awakened their awareness of the power of an image. McCurry went on to travel the world, taking images that combined the immediacy of photojournalism with the power of artistry. His attention to detail and deep work ethic to improve have kept him among the world's elite of photographers.
McCurry has produced countless iconic photographs that capture the beauty, breadth and diversity of the human experience: a black steam locomotive passing in front of the ghostly, timeless Taj Mahal; a procession of Buddhist nuns whose pink umbrellas and robes contrast with the vibrant orange and blue buildings behind them; a young boy in Kathmandu taking an outdoor nap reclining on a swaddled cow; a dark-haired girl with pearl earrings from Indonesia leaning against a front yard fence, wading waist-deep in floating floodwaters and gazing silently at the photographer; and famous portraits of people from all over the world, young and old, joyful and serious, gazing out at the viewer in unforgettable ways. The artistry and influence of his work have earned McCurry iconic status.
That he's achieved this level of meteoric success wasn't a given when he started. “I'd barely graduated high school,” he told a group of laughing Academy students in Celarc's advanced photography class. Born and raised in Philadelphia, McCurry attended Pennsylvania State University before joining a local newspaper as a photographer. Two years later, he took his savings and followed his curiosity to India, where he began photographing the areas and people he felt a strong connection to. “I set off for a six-week trip and ended up spending two years there,” he says.
A few months later, McCurry expanded his travels, traveling to Pakistan where he encountered a group of Afghan refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion. They encouraged him to cross the border into Afghanistan, document their plight, and share their story with the world. The resulting photographs, which would become “Afghan Girl,” brought McCurry instant international fame and set the direction for his life's work.
Throughout his prolific career, McCurry has traveled the world capturing images that range from the intimate to the sublime that are etched into the collective consciousness of our time. “For me, my goal is to find some kind of universality between people in different situations,” says McCurry. “If I'm successful, my work should be universally understandable to anyone who has experienced the human condition, regardless of their situation.”
Dialogue with the community
During his visit to Punahou, McCully had numerous opportunities to interact with community members, including an evening open to the public in the Punahou Chapel entitled “The World as a Profound Invitation: Inspiring Young People to Explore the World as a Definitive Adventure.”
Attended by about 300 community members, McCurry shared the stage with his childhood friend Michael Carroll and the event's emcee, Academy English teacher Tom Gamarino. Set against a captivating slideshow backdrop featuring dozens of McCurry's most iconic photos, the conversation touched on everything from McCurry's recent travels to considering how to stay deeply involved throughout one's life.
McCurry recently photographed in Cambodia and Vietnam, and has visited Ukraine twice since the Russian invasion in 2022. When asked how he chooses where to photograph next, McCurry responded, “I try to go to places that I think are important to photograph, places that have important stories to tell.” Carroll added that seeing our common humanity through art can be a way to humanize conflict, an act of peace, and an “expression of decency or goodness.” The more the art is non-aggressive, open, kind, willing, and vigilant, the more it is an expression of sanity.
Carroll, a longtime friend of McCarey's, said the essential question of McCarey's career is “what does it mean to be human?” He continued, “It's the adventure of being human, the adventure of being alive. It's deep, it's right in front of you. It's living an authentic life, not an artificial life.” McCarey agreed, adding, “When we can look at other people, other cultures, and see the commonalities, the common humanity, we see that they're just like you and me, and that's of great value.”
The conversation then turned to craft and careers, including that of McCurry and the Academy's photography students he was working with that week. McCurry, who describes himself as a “professional wanderer and explorer,” emphasized that while travel inspires his work, it's not a necessary component of a photographer's art. Through his camera lens, McCurry said, “I can explore my family, my neighborhood, my community. I don't have to get in a car or a bike or a plane.”
He reminisced about his beginnings: his first photo was of a neighborhood dog, and his first “good” photo was of a living room in a furniture store. From those humble photography beginnings, McCurry steadily grew as a photographer, honing his skills until his canvas became the world itself. “I can't imagine doing anything other than walking around, exploring, and shooting,” McCurry said.
