Art Of The Day Weekly
#416 - from 4 February 2016 to 10 February 2016
McCurry, a certain idea of India
In his introduction, William Dalrymple reminds the reader that India is a land of contrasts: on one side huge, shiny malls, on the other, barefoot peasants with their hoes and their hand-pulled cart; on one side, 55 billionaires (twice the number ten years ago), on the other, 72% of the population living with less than two dollars a day. The India which Steve McCurry (born in 1950), a great reporter at Magnum, has traveled far and wide for the last thirty years, is at a crossroads between thousand year old traditions and pitiless globalization. Bicycles pedaling in the puddles due to the monsoon, women in the fields, children in the streets, slums in the middle of rusty pipes, a deluge of colors in Rajasthan, and so much more. There are strong images everywhere, both in the wild nature of Ladakh as well as in overpopulated cities, the Hindu singing under the shadow of the Banyan tree as well as the old steam engines. And always, in the middle of all this, the human beings who have this changing and colorful decor for their every day surroundings.
• India (in English) by Steve McCurry, Phaidon, 2015, 208 p., £39.95.