Steve McCurrys - everywhere you look!

Over the last few years we’ve had the pleasure of seeing Steve McCurry’s photographs in all sorts of places but we’ve never seen them hung in quite as breathtaking a way as this. 

The new exhibition, Steve McCurry, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, Italy was created by designer Fabio Novembre and is inspired by nomadic villages. Novembre curated the show with the emphasis on grouping subject matter and emotions, seeking out the common threads and unimaginable ties that link people and places, even of different latitudes, rather than categorising his selections through mere place or time.

Steve McCurry at MACRO Museum, Rome

A series of dome structures populate the museum hall with the photographs hanging on the insides. This has the dual effect of giving the viewer time ‘alone’ with the photograph while allowing them to choose their next stop rather than being directed on their journey round the gallery space as is traditionally the case. Each dome transports the viewer to a different location around the world to reveal how connected we are as humans, despite our geographical location.

Steve McCurry at MACRO Museum, Rome

“When Benoit Mandelbrot, father of fractals geometry, defined what a researcher meant to him, he employed the description: 
'nomad by choice, pioneer out of need',” says Novembre. “Thus, when I think of Steve McCurry, I tend to apply the same aphorism to his life - tireless researcher of human nature.

Steve McCurry at MACRO Museum, Rome

“The subjects of McCurry’s photographs represent the reality 
hidden behind that glossy communication which pretends to represent humanity. And so, as Mandelbrot provided 
the first mathematical tools to deal with the chaos, McCurry provides us with visual accounts to deal with the diversity. Steve has all the characteristics of the true researcher: from the patience necessary to carry out an experiment (or to take a photograph), to the restlessness that always pushes him towards a new frontier to cross. 
His home is everywhere but the houses in his photos are precarious, weak cellular structures like the lives of the people who inhabit them. It is exactly that suggestion that I have tried to represent within the large spaces, a layout similar to a nomad village, There is life and death in McCurry’s photos, as well as the short or long itinerary that links them.”

Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl, near Peshwar, Pakistan (1984)

The exhibition offers an opportunity to see for the first time some of McCurry’s most recent work, from 2009 to 2011: The Last Roll Project with the 32 images taken from around the world using the very last rolls of Kodachrome film produced by Kodak, and printed on Epson technology which McCurry says enables him to find the same colours and emotions in the picture as he experienced when he took it. The exhibition also features his latest trips to Thailand and Burma with a spectacular series of images dedicated to Buddhism, an unpublished report on Cuba and the whole story of the Afghan girl. A selection of his "Italian photographs" will also be on display, the result of repeated stays over the year in numerous cities and regions, from the Veneto to Sicily.

The exhibition is produced by MACRO and CIVITA, in collaboration with the L'Espresso Group and Agenzia SudEst57 and runs until April 29.

Watch the inspiring One-Minute Masterclass series:

McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #1
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #2
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #3
McCurry’s One-Minute Masterclass #4
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #5
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #6 
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #7
McCurry's One-Monute Masterclass #8
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #9
McCurry's One-Minute Masterclass #10

For a closer look behind the photographs follow the link to Revealed - the true story behind the Afghan 'Mona Lisa'.

For more from Steve McCurry view his memories of 9/11 and follow the link to buy Steve McCurry’s Iconic Photographs.

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