A Common Faith - Steve McCurry's Travels through the Muslim World

Today, I didn't stay back at school after 1.30pm. I raced back home to change and went out again to catch Steve McCurry's Public Lecture at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.

I'm not a photographer, and truthfully, I didn't even know who Steve McCurry was before the lecture. I only knew that he took the iconic "Afghan girl" picture . But I was interested to listen to his lecture because I love hearing about how people go about doing their fascinating work.

I arrived at 3.05pm. The talk started about 10 minutes later. It was very interesting. He showed us pictures that he took and briefly commented on each of them. Through his comments, I got an insight into how a photographer captures a good shot.

Below are snippets from the talk:

-Photography requires a great deal of patience. It's not advisable to be so intent and anxious to get a good shot. You need to be more laid-back and immerse yourself in your surroundings. Only then, will the good moments come/reveal themselves to you.

-An example of patience is when he stood at the same spot for two hours, taking photos of people coming in and out of an alley. He probably took hundreds of photos from that spot but he selected one of a boy from the whole pile, which later became the cover of one of his books.

-You must have an eye for interesting details and be quick enough to capture them. There's this one photo where a boy, his mother and grandmother were huddled together, each with a hand to their face, in a similar gesture. If you're not quick enough, the moment might be gone.

-You have to be a daring. Floods, dust storm and burning oil fields were a few things that he has had to brave through. Once, he even leaned out from a moving train's window to capture a shot (with his assistant holding on to his legs).

-He makes full use of the day's limited "shooting hours", when the light's perfect.

-I also love the story of how he tracked down the Afghan girl years after the original photo was taken.

The Q & A session was also interesting. While a few questions were on technical matters, the rest were more general. I like his answer to this particular question: How does his various experiences change him?

He said that he had discovered that beneath all our thick veneers, people are all the same. We all want to be loved and respected, we want the best for our family, we want good health care and education, etc. This realisation has made him more tolerant and accepting of others.

After the talk ended, we were allowed into the exhibition for free (yeay!)

I especially love his portraits; his subjects are beautiful, intense, and have arresting features.

It was nice to look at the pictures but it was nicer hearing him talk about them - you get an intimate detail of how the picture was taken, what attracted him to capture it, the whole process...

The exhibition will run until Apr 8, 2010, so do check it out.
You can also go to these sites:
-www.iamm.org.my (the picture above was taken from this site)
-www.stevemccurry.com
-stevemccurry.wordpress.com
-www.epson.com.my