Steve McCurry - Retrospective

American photographer Steve McCurry's most enduring and widely-recognised image is undoubtedly the haunting and beautiful Afghan Girl. Taken in 1984 during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan when McCurry crossed the border disguised as a local with rolls of film sown into his clothes, the photograph won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad Showing Courage and Enterprise and provided his ticket into Magnum.

But as anyone who has followed his career will know, McCurry's body of work far outdistances this one iconic image. Steve McCurry - Retrospective, on show at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (until 17 October), draws on a collection of photographs built up over a 20 year career that span continents and conflicts, from Peshawar to Kyoto, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the Gulf War and September 11th - always with a trademark focus firmly on the human condition. 'I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person’s face,' McCurry has said. 'I try to convey what it is like to be that person.