The Steve McCurry exhibit was made up of large photographs being “floated” off of the dark blue walls. They did not have frames around them and they were gently lit from above so they each had a small spotlight. The space of the exhibit was organized in a circle around the middle of the room which had the main staircase. The room featured 37 photographs which were “representative of three decades of McCurry’s work,” (http://rubinmuseum.org/). The dark walls were chosen to bring a feeling of closeness and intimacy to the space. The photos are arranged by which region of India they come from, and they vary from traditional portraits to landscape photography, all meant to represent an aspect of Indian culture that McCurry chose to show to the rest of the world.
The photos of India McCurry chose to represent are all very varied, though his focus is on the human side of the country. Without the people, the country wouldn’t be as vibrant and appealing as it is. Due to this, the exhibit doesn’t show a single photograph that doesn’t have a human–except for one where the subject is a black dog, but even that one carries a very lively and human aspect. His primary goal is to showcase the people. When he photographs his subject as a classical portrait, he often does it head-on, with the subject at eye-level on a neutral background. Other times, he has no qualms about photographing people with their backs turned to him while they are engaging in an activity, like the boy running through the alley or the girl dancing by the movie posters. When he is not taking portraits, he makes sure to include the setting of the photograph to give it a sense of place and time, like with the picture of the man with his sewing machine walking through the high waters of a monsoon. Often, India has a reputation for being a country struggling to stay afloat amidst the poverty, starvation, and dirt. However, McCurry doesn’t exotify the conditions of his subjects. He doesn’t show suffering or pain, instead he shows perseverance, humanity, and human situations which people everywhere can relate to. He reframes situations which might seem bizarre and gives them a context that is easy to connect to, like the man taking his daughter to school or the men looking for files amongst the filing cabinets. 
The image I chose is the one of the cobblers surrounding a man in a suit. It drew me in because of the symmetrical arrangement of the men working, all of them bent down at their work and shirtless. The composition of the image is striking because of the man in the suit being centered. The colors and textures of the image are also very appealing, as everything is lit with even, diffused light and there are no extreme shadows being cast. This image also shows the principle of frame within a frame, due to the dark receding space behind the men making a new frame out of the blueish walls. It speaks to me because in many ways it could be representative of the differences in class in India. However, despite the differences in appearance and jobs, all the men in the image are not wearing shoes, and the the presence of the man in the suit shows how despite their differences the different social and economic classes still intersect. Another interesting thing is that the cobblers are looking down but the man is looking to the left, away from the camera. It makes the image appear candid because it appears that none of the men have noticed the photographer and are preoccupied with their own lives. It makes me feel that everything is interconnected, and that so many photographs are really about being at the right place and the right time, but also being able to have a critical eye for spotting a good photograph.
The photograph of the Afghan girl, taken by McCurry in 1984 is iconic for many reasons. Her name is Sharbat Gula and she was only a teenager when she was photographed, but she had already experience loss since losing her parents to the Soviet Union’s bombs during the invasion of Afghanistan. (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text). What is so captivating in her portrait is the combination of colors, the swirl of her red shawl around her face, and her piercing, adult gaze. In the photo she does not shy away from the camera and looks directly at it. The neutral background of the photo complements her green eyes. She is lit with even, diffused light and her face is slightly turned to a 3/4 view. The photograph became emblematic because in the middle of the war and the images of the war, fighting, fire, pain and rubble, nobody expected to see this image of a girl refugee meeting the world head-on. The exhibit showed the true power of images to remain timeless messages. The ability of McCurry to capture a moment in time is incredibly priceless. Photography is one of the strongest methods of communication, because the ability to reproduce a memory and communicate it to a viewer on the other side of the world, without the use of words, is something like magic.
You describe the exhibit design well. I think the photos in the exhibit were beautifully enhanced by decisions like mounting and not framing them and the lighting.
While McCurry can be accused of romanticizing India and not showing its more contemporary side, he certainly shows the people with respect and brings out their dignity.
The photo you selected is an exception to what I wrote above. In this photo, he does juxtapose two generations, the older craftsman with a younger office worker to amazing effect.
I think we, all of us, get tired of photos of war, fighting, pain, rubble. We never get tired of looking into someone’s face especially if they are looking at us. When we look at the photo of the Afghan Girl, we imagine her pain and suffering and yes, I think that is magic.