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In India for a Nat Geo assignment, photographer Steve McCurry rebuts criticism that he is a one-image wonder

Q You are famous for one photo, the ‘Afghan girl’, which made it to the National Geographic cover. Are you a one-photo wonder?

A Well, you know, it’s rare to have the man on the street recognise a picture. I’m very proud of it. It’s great to have a photo which is an icon. I look at the glass as half-full. If people only know me for that photo, hey, I’ll buy that! It’s perfectly fine. I’ve also published ten books that have sold well. But people know me only for that picture. I appreciate that. People not familiar with photography recognise that. That’s great.

Q Do you think you’ve captured better images? Are there other photos that ought to have made you more famous?

A I don’t look at it that way. I don’t distinguish between one and other. I like different pictures for different reasons.

Q Does being a Western photographer, working for the National Geographic, give you easier access to your subjects?

A It doesn’t make any difference. It’s the same if the cameraman is Chinese or Indian or Peruvian. It depends on your personality and curiosity, your passion for work. You can’t put a nationality on that. Some of the best photographers in the world are from India.

Q Do you think an Indian photographer can get the kind of exposure you’ve got? Does it make it easier being American?

A No. Sebastião Salgado is from Brazil. Josef Koudelka is from the Czech Republic. Being American neither helps nor hurts.

Q How do you stop pictures of Asia, Africa, etcetera from becoming exotic? Or do you just let them be?

A You photograph what interests you. You photograph from your heart, your gut, your intuitive sense. If it intrigues you, fascinates you, photograph it. I don’t worry too much if it’s this or that. Things that touch me, that’s what I’m interested in. Interpretation isn’t in my hands.

Q You write in your blog about photographic insight. What is this?

A It’s if you can connect with somebody. It’s hard to describe. Maybe it’s better left unexplained. There’s this mystery, some kind of haunting quality. It’s hard to pin down. Like a poem, a photograph should not mean, it should be. If you photograph somebody, the personality reveals itself when you get some insight. Somehow you connect. If you look at the picture and feel you understand that emotion, then the photographer has succeeded.

Q Why do you think ‘Afghan girl’ has been so iconic?

A There’s a real honest, gritty quality to it. There also beauty to it. In that beauty, there’s also a troubled, haunted quality. It’s an enigma. It’s unexplainable.

Q Are you still in touch with Gula, the girl in the picture?

A Since I don’t speak her language, Pashto, and she doesn’t speak English, we have always needed to use a translator. But the translator has been in touch with the National Geographic and she is living with her husband and three children in a small village between Peshawar and Afghanistan.

Q Do you think artistes are sufficiently grateful to the subjects that make them famous?

A I guess it would depend on the individual artist. I think in the case of Francis Bacon, he was very much grateful to his subject, who he painted many times—a photographer named Peter Beard. In fact, he gave him several of his paintings. In my case, with the Afghan girl, we went to great lengths to help her and even sent her and her family on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Q What role has war photography had in communicating the tragedy of the event?

A Photography in itself can do so much in connecting with the guts and hearts of people. It’s like building a wall. A brick by brick way of telling the story of Sri Lanka or Afghanistan.

Q How politicised is the Western media when it comes to images it absorbs and rejects? Does it weed out the brutality of the Third World? Or does it celebrate it as exotic?

A Most Western magazines are sensitive to the fact that their publications will sit in a home. Kids will see it. That’s part of the equation.

Q Do you think a photograph can give one the big picture?

A Photography can get to the core of the human condition and provide insight into some aspect of life. It cannot do everything. Certain pictures will convey a certain understanding. Good photography can make people sympathise with the subject. Images can instantly connect people to people, nations to nations.

Q How close have you been to death while on work?

A Of all places, it was in Bombay during the Ganesh festival. I was in knee-deep water taking photos. Some goons were trying to steal my camera. But more people came in and they ran away.

imageNational GeographicphotographerSteve McCurry