The Steve McCurry exhibit at the Rubin Museum was really interesting and had a lot of beautiful photos from the photographer’s portfolio. What’s interesting about the exhibit was that all of the walls were this dark shade of blue, instead of the typical white walls present in most museum galleries. The lighting is also dim, which helps bring out the vibrant colors present in all of the photos. When you step out of the elevators, the first collection of photos you see are examples of the religious diversity (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) in India. As you walk past these photos and begin to circle around the central staircase, the next collection you see are a series of photos focused on the railroads of India and what a day in India is like during the monsoon season. The last collection of photos are portraits and photos from a colorful town in India called: Jodhpur. Following that is a map of India and videos of Steve McCurry playing on monitors that visitors can listen to.
India is the subject of the Steve McCurry exhibit. Through the photos displayed in the exhibit, you get the sense of diversity that is present in India. You see people from many different religious backgrounds in his photos: Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim, etc. The railroad photos show the daily lives of people in India, and there is a clear sense of how essential the trains are to their livelihoods. The monsoon photos show the people’s attitude and perseverance towards the floods that come with the weather. There is also diversity in the locations shown, such as the Taj Mahal and an Indian town where the buildings are painted in blue. The exhibit doesn’t show any of the politics going on in India; it’s explicitly about the culture. The subjects are everyday people instead people in positions of power.
The photograph I love in this exhibit is “Buddhist Monks Debate”. There are only two photos in the exhibit that show Buddhist monks: this one and a portrait of a Buddhist boy. But I picked this one because the visual composition grabbed my attention more. There is a clear pattern thanks to all of the red robes the monks are wearing. But the pattern is broken by the robes of the older monks, who wear a yellow sash around their shoulder. There are even two other monks wearing some kind of yellow hat on their head. The streak of yellow directs the viewer’s attention to the center of the photo: two monks engaging in a fierce debate. The aggressiveness of the two monks’ poses, contrasted with the solemnity on the other monks’ faces, makes it clear they’re the subject of the photo. Because the other monks’ attention are directed to the subjects, the viewers feel like they’re also participating as onlookers in this spectacle.
McCurry’s “Afghan Girl” photo is famous because I think it challenges preconceptions about Muslim women and refugees. It’s also a visually compelling photo, because of its color composition. The red headscarf compliments the green background, which helps bring out the subject’s green eyes. Because of this, combined with the fact the subject looks directly at the camera, the viewer is simultaneously drawn in and confronted. The subject is a refugee who fled to Pakistan after the Soviet Union bombed Afghanistan. I think people have a lot of preconceptions about what a Muslim woman looks like, so a portrait of a Muslim girl with green eyes is interesting in that aspect. Which was the main thing I took away from the exhibit: to throw away preconceptions and approach things with a clear mind. I think people have a certain image of India, but McCurry’s photos shows there is a vibrancy to the life there that is often overlooked.
Link to photo: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/9b/7e/f1/9b7ef1e292c7443fe790a4f5ea69e939.jpg
Very well written. The first paragraph details the exhibit as a whole laying out the subjects very clearly. You make a good distinction in the second paragraph that the McCurry photos are abut the culture and leave politics aside. The photo you selected to focus on is a very surprising one. At least for me. If the guide hadn’t explained the situation to me, I would have thought the two monks were fighting. Formally, I agree that breaking the pattern of the monks in the audience is what makes it visually engaging.
As to the photograph of the Afghan Girl, you may very well be right that it became so famous because it breaks stereotypes and is not what we as a culture expect to see in a photograph of a Muslim girl.