“The young Afghan refugee who stared from the cover of National Geographic in June 1985 was an enigma for 17 years. What was her name? Had she survived? Photographer Steve McCurry joined a crew from National Geographic Television & Film to methodically search for her. They showed her photograph around the refugee camp in Pakistan where McCurry had encountered her as a schoolgirl in December 1984. Finally, after some false leads, a man who had also lived in the camp as a child recognized her. Yes, she was alive. She had left the camp many years before and was living in the mountainous Tora Bora region of Afghanistan. He said he could find her, and three days later he and a friend brought her back to the camp. There, the remarkable story of this woman, Sharbat Gula, began to be told.”
#BJP 7849: Modern Myths – British Journal of Photography
“How can contemporary photographers shoot stories from the past? By taking a long hard look at how they continue to inform our cultures and lives, as our July issue shows.”
Magnum photographers discuss their decisive moment
“Some of the most iconic Magnum Photographers, dating from the early years of the photo agency right up to the present day, share their take on, and the image that defines for them, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the defining moment.”
