Steve McCurry

Yesterday I attended the Photoplus International Conference & Expo - the big annual 3-day photo show held at the Jacob Javits Center. There are hundreds of booths with vendors of all types - photography equipment, printers, computers, software, services, books etc. Of course new camera equipment is the big draw for most attendees and Nikon and Canon were prominently positioned, showing new, exciting products, typically unveiled at trade shows. This is also a good place for one's education, with numerous seminars running simultaneously on all days. One really inspiring aspect of the show was a gallery setup by Epson, featuring some of the world's finest photographers with their work printed on the latest high-end color printers. The photographers themselves were on hand signing free copies of a selected photo. The signings were scheduled at appointed times throughout the day. The lines were quite manageable, so I decided to wait to meet Steve McCurry and get my own signed photo. McCurry is an award winning photojournalist most well known for his photograph Afghan Girl that originally appeared on the cover of the June, 1985 edition of National Geographic magazine - named as "the most recognized photograph" in the history of the magazine. I have been a fan of Steve's ever since I saw the documentary on his search to find this girl, an Afghan refugee, that he had previously photographed. Her identity remained unknown for over 15 years until Steve and a National Geographic team located her in 2002 - Sharbat Gula . If you are unfamiliar with Steve's exquisite work, I highly recommend you check his website - click here. Sharbat is photo number 17 in his Afghanistan gallery ...