Steve McCurry

"If you wait, people will forget your camera, and the soul will drift up into view"

Born in Philadelphia, Steve McCurry studied history and cinematography at Pennsylvania State University before working as a freelance photographer in India. He is most famous for his evocative color photography, which has captured stories of human experience that, in the finest documentary tradition, transcend boundaries of language and culture.

His career was launched when he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan - just before the Russian invasion - to take the first pictures of the conflict. Since then many of McCurry's images have become modern icons.

A high point of his career was the rediscovery of an unidentified Afghan refugee girl, which many have described as the most recognizable photograph in the world today.