photo credit: Ahmet Sel

Steve McCurry will give a talk about his art and his work in Afghanistan on Monday, February 15, 2010 at 7 p.m. in Loomis Chaffee’s Gilchrist Auditorium.

Mr. McCurry is renowned for his evocative and moving photographs of Asia and its people. His career reached a turning point in the 1980s when, disguised in native garb, he crossed into Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion. And in 1984, while visiting an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan, he took his famous “Afghan girl” photograph, which became a National Geographic icon after it was published on the cover of the June 1985 issue. Eighteen years later, after the fall of the Taliban, an extensive search effort relocated the previously anonymous refugee, Sharbat Gula.

Mr. McCurry has covered numerous conflicts around the globe, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Tibet and its people, 9/11, and Afghanistan. His work is driven by an innate sense of wonder and curiosity about the world and its people. He has an uncanny ability to cut across boundaries of race, religion, language, and culture to capture the human experience.

Mr. McCurry's visit is part of this year's Hubbard Speakers Series, which is focusing on South Asia, specifically India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tibet.He will speak to students at convocation on Tuesday, February 16.

The event is free and open to the public.