Afghan Girl Arrives in Zagreb!

One of the best known documentary photographs in the world, the Afghan Girl, is the centrepiece of an exhibition taking place at the Art Pavilion. This is a unique opportunity to see up close the unforgettable, sad green eyes, as well as other works by famous photographer Steve McCurry.

The globally famous portrait known as the Afghan Girl will be on show in Zagreb until 10th December. The portrait of the famous green-eyed girl is part of a large exhibition, “South-South East, A Life in Pictures”, by renowned photographer Steve McCurry, which was opened in late October at Zagreb’s Art Pavilion.

The exhibition was realized in cooperation with the renowned Photo Gallery of Ljubljana, and it consists of some of the best photos that Steve McCurry, one of the most renowned contemporary photographers in the world, has taken in many different war zones around the world. Apart from the Afghan Girl, which is undoubtedly his biggest claim to fame, the exhibition features other documentary photographs that are no less deserving of prestigious awards, but have somehow remained in the shadow of a confused and scared, yet brave green-eyed girl dressed in threadbare clothes. The photograph was taken in 1985 in a refugee camp near Peshawar in Pakistan, and the unforgettable gaze made the young Afghan a true global icon of a contemporary, often oppressed world.

As a documentary photographer, Steve McCurry worked in many war zones and sites of natural disasters around the world. He covered the crisis situations in India, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq conflict, the Lebanese, Afghan and Cambodian civil wars, the Islamic rebellion in the Philippines and the Gulf War. He returned to Afghanistan and Tibet on several occasions. Unlike many of his colleagues, who photographed current images of pending disasters, McCurry has always been more interested in common people and their destinies as integral parts of the on-going disasters. Rather than showing general suffering, his photographs are in-depth portrayals of personal destinies of people caught up in the chaos, showing them as brave participants whose facial expressions often reveal their most personal form of suffering, frequently including small moments of apathy or the joy of survival. McCurry’s photographs have become world famous because of such powerful portrayal of (in)humanity found in unnecessary human suffering.

Since 1986, Steve McCurry has been part of the Magnum Photo Agency team, and he continues contributing to all major newspapers around the world, including National Geographic Magazine.

He has won numerous awards, including one for the best press photographer of 1984, which he received from the National Press Photographers Association. He is also the only photographer ever to win four first prizes at the World Press Photo exhibition in the same year, also 1984.