BACKGROUND Steve McCurry is an American photographer who was born on April 23, 1950. While originally planning on studying film and cinematography and filmmaking, he decided later to get a degree in theater arts and graduated in 1974. His photography really lifted off after he dressed in Afghani garb and snuck into Pakistan and left with rolls of film sewn into his clothes. He now spends his time covering conflicts. He also has spent some time educating people on touching up photos after they have been taken. PERSONAL STYLE His style is very unique. All of his photos show their subject in their own personal reality. They all have a serious face on and are wearing what they wear everyday. You can tell in his most of his photos all of his subjects all make the same face, which is the face of witnessing conflict as well as struggle. Some of his photos are not like this though; one example being the boy in the blue truck. PHILOSOPHY Steve spent a lot of time focusing on the human consequences of war, and how war not only affects the landscape, but the human face. This is why he spent so much time and took so much risk getting the pictures from Pakistan: in order to show people the face of someone who witnesses conflict. He also liked to edit his images in post, which is a topic that some of the people in the world disagree with him on. He has gotten backlash from the public INFLUENCES The biggest way Steve’s work has influenced mine is the whole thing about how a facial look can change the whole meaning of a picture. While looking through the photos I take, I can easily find ones where you can tell what the subject is thinking just by looking in their eyes and looking at they way there face sits. COMPARE/CONTRAST My photos ended up being similar to Steve’s style but different at the same time. While he explored the darker side of human emotion, I branched out and captured photos that show different emotions that can easily make the audience think about what the subject is thinking about. The photo of Ronnie carrying the boat is an example of capturing emotion. He had just come off the water after a pre-practice workout, and had a serious face on all day, which reflects on his attitude towards the sport of rowing. ARTIST STATEMENT The photo of my mom is one of my favorites, so I’ll do my artist statement of that one. I stepped outside after she was just getting home from work and just put the camera up and told her to smile, and she instantly did. After looking at the photo, I realized that she wasn’t just smiling because she was told to, it looked like a genuine smile. There weren't many difficulties that I encountered while taking and editing this, I just pointed and shot, and ended up getting a genuine face showing genuine emotion, which can sometimes be tricky to capture on camera.