McCurry Response

McCurry’s photos capture a beautifully natural way of life in India. His photos depict an extremely diverse society that ultimately differs so much from our own. McCurry focuses on India’s infrastructure in cities, architecture in holy sites, and the Indian people. He presents themes which address the gradual modernization of India, like Bollywood movie posters, but also captures aspects of Indian and Hindu culture, like Holi and various gods. Similarly, McCurry photographs poverty in a very aesthetically pleasing way. His use of saturated color and well-composed photos somewhat contradict the more desperate nature of some of his subjects. This in itself blurs the lines between documentary, and fashion photography, but also presents questionable motive for the photographer himself. McCurry’s highly aestheticized pictures are reminiscent of Ron Haviv’s work, specifically when he captured young girls in Darfur on their way to retrieve water for their families.

Perhaps the most stunning of McCurry’s work in India are his portraits. In a photo depicting a young girl wearing beautiful clothes, and has a pierced nose. There is no context to the photo, and while the girl in the photo is decked in colorful, shiny garb, there is no way for the viewer to know the context behind the photo. As a result, the viewer focuses merely on aesthetics. The girl herself is beautiful, and her eyes capture light so that the viewer is immediately pulled into her gaze. Her hands are gripped at her chin as if she is resting her head. The girl’s facial expression is emotionless but intent at staring straight into the camera. The use of color in this photo is important to giving the photo depth. In contrast, a black and white version of this photograph would not be as impactful, since small details and color contrasts would be lost.

The lack of context in this photo is interesting because the viewer is forced to focus on purely the aesthetic beauty of the shot. For all the viewer knows, this girl is well-off– but this may not be the case. McCurry’s photo can be contrasted to Haviv’s similarly composed shot of three girls fetching water in a desert in Darfur. The photo is presented in color, and there is no context besides the three girls, and one acting as the focal point of the photo. She is dressed in beautiful clothes, and the viewer may focus only on the aesthetic beauty of the shot. There are many opinions on Haviv’s photos, with some saying that the aesthetically pleasing qualities of his work yields more to fashion photography, or even toward staged portraiture. The use of saturated color in the photos leads the viewer to see the subjects as staged models, rather than regular people. I believe that while the loss of color would make the photos less aesthetically beautiful, but the use of monochrome may create more empathy between the viewer and the subject since the subject wouldn’t be seen as a model. The same goes for McCurry. If his portrait of the young girl was in black in white, her hand position may be seen as “begging”, or even “scared”. This would create more emotion with the viewer and shift the focus away from aesthetics.

Similarly, in a documentary-style photograph depicting a woman and a child outside a car window appearing to be begging caught my eye. On the inside of the car, McCurry is taking the photo of the girl and the child she is holding. On the outside, the woman and her child are exposed to the rest of the world, it is raining, and they are begging him for food. The photo itself is beautiful. The viewer’s eye turns immediately toward the woman and her red clothes, which is contrasted by the darkness around her. I find it interesting that McCurry chose to capture poverty in such a visually pleasing way. At the same time, this photo could also be easily staged, and based on the other photos he has taken (like the portraits), this seems possible. Primarily, my concern with this photo goes back to the idea that he is portraying people in a more model-like, aesthetically pleasing way, rather than in a documentary style. While there is no given context to the photo, the viewer can infer that the girl is a beggar and is looking into McCurry’s car to ask for money.

There are blurred lines between documentary photography versus fashion photography between both McCurry and Haviv. McCurry’s work tends to follow the same logic as Haviv from a visual standpoint. The difference between a photo that focuses merely on aesthetics versus a photo that is entirely free of any staging becomes unclear through both McCurry’s photos and Haviv’s. At the same time, Haviv says that his photos are documentary, which does extend to creating photos with highly aestheticized qualities to them.