Steve signing a copy of Untold at his Peter Fetterman Gallery appearance and talk last night (Tuesday)

Steve McCurry on TV and in the gallery

The iconic Magnum photographer squeezes a peerless career into six minutes for the Californian news cycle

Though they're both current affairs professionals, the intrepid photojournalist Steve McCurry usually operates under very different conditions from most daytime news anchors. Nevertheless, when he flew west earlier this week to promote his show at the Peter Fetterman Gallery in Santa Monica, the legendary photographer - more used to the Red Zone than the Green Room - put in an appearance on the pristine set of KTTV's Good Day LA morning talk show.

Steve at the Peter Fetterman Gallery

Both the show and the TV appearance coincide with the publication of Steve McCurry Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographsh, and the Magnum photographer wasted no time in recounting the story behind such well-known shots such as The Afghan Girl to hosts Steve Edwards and Maria Sansone.

Afghan Girl, 1985, by Steve McCurry

"Although she's young and poor she has this dignity and a fortitude," the photographer said of his most famous shot, taken in 1985 of the 12-year-old Afghani refugee, Sharbat Gula. He went onto describe how he and the National Geographic team later tracked her down, and have subsequently bought her a house.

Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

McCurry also explained that he never feels as if he's exploiting his subjects, but instead treats them with respect, asking permission and trying, wherever possible tries to enrich their lives as he goes about his work. It's only a brief clip, buts it's worth watching, if only for the sensitivity and humility McCurry projects, winning over the morning show hosts just as he must have impressed more distant subjects in more exotic climes, countless times before. Watch the video above, and learn more about his incredible career in Steve McCurry Untold The Stories Behind the Photographs.

Untold: The Stories Behind the PhotographsSteve McCurry

Steve McCurry Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs takes an unprecedented look at the work of Steve McCurry, one of today’s finest and most daring imagemakers. This is the first book to fully explore how the world-renowned photographer finds, takes and develops his uniquely iconic photographs. Presenting a personal archive of material, Steve McCurry Untold features the very best of McCurry’s most beautiful and powerful photo stories, taken from around the world over the last thirty years. Each story is illustrated with never-before-seen notes, images and ephemera – saved by McCurry from his extensive travels – and over 100 lavish, full-colour photo plates of McCurry’s most significant work. Brought to life by newly commissioned essays, the stories offer a critical narrative and give new insight and ideas into the background, experience and ideas behind McCurry’s unparalleled photography. Together, these fascinating documents reveal a new and exciting view of the story behind the story.

Tracing the narrative behind 14 of McCurry’s most important assignments, each story provides a behind-the-scenes look at McCurry’s adventures, from first publication to their afterlife in the world, creating a documentary record of his remarkable career. The featured work covers his entire oeuvre and focuses on a broad range of themes, such as rail travel in India (1983), the plight of the Tibetan people (2000–6), the effects of the Monsoon (1984) and the events of September 11th (2001), alongside his lesser-known bodies of work on the Hazara Tribe in Afghanistan (2007), Yemen (1999), and the environmental fallout from the Gulf War in Kuwait (1991). Richly illustrated and explained, this book provides an inside perspective on Steve McCurry, creating a living biography and archive of one of photography’s greatest legends.

Specifications:

Format: Hardback
Size: 345 × 245 mm (13 5/8 × 9 5/8 in)
Pages: 264 pp
Illustrations: 500 illustrations
ISBN: 9780714864624

Steve McCurry (b.1950) launched his career as a photojournalist when, disguised in native garb, he crossed the Pakistan border into Afghanistan thirty years ago. His remarkable coverage won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal, which is awarded to photographers who exhibit exceptional courage and enterprise. A recipient of an unprecedented four World Press Photo first prizes in a single year, many of McCurry's images have since become modern icons. Famous for his work across Southeast Asia, McCurry’s photographs are beautiful, uplifting and affecting. McCurry is a regular contributor to many international journals including National Geographic magazine. He is a member of Magnum Photos.

"It makes you want to get out and see the world, camera in hand..."—Amateur Photographer

"At heart a chronicler of catastrophe... McCurry's lushly coloured, far flung reportage has made his work some of the most recognisable among that of Magnum photographers, but a new book Untold: The Stories Behind the Photographs reminds us that perhaps his most striking asset is a relationship with Afghanistan that dates back to the Seventies."—Daily Telegraph

"Steve McCurry: Untold spans 30 years of McCurry's career and includes fascinating ephemera from his travels: diary entries, photos of him at work and some of the 20-plus passports he's gone through over the decades... He manages to make the world seem enormous and quite small; exotic, and somehow familiar."—TIME

"Spread over some 250 pages are famous and lesser-known images, as well as anecdotes and shots of ephemera he gathered along the way, including letters and journal pages."—The Wall Street Journal

"A collection of diary entries, photographs and some of the 20 passports that this award-winning photojournalist have been put together in this incredible book spanning his 30 year career... A coffee table book that is more than a pretty face."—What the Grazia Team Wants for Christmas: Anna Dewhurst, Senior Picture Editor, chooses Untold - Grazia.co.uk