ISTANBUL

“The people in Gaza are displaying their resilience and fortitude and pushing forward and being as positive as they can despite the hardship,” said renowned American photographer Steve McCurry.

“They (Gazans) have that fortitude to remain and not to be defeated,” McCurry told Anadolu during an interview in Istanbul, where his latest exhibition, “The Haunted Eye,” is on display.

The world-renowned photographer, best known for his iconic 1984 portrait “Afghan Girl,” said that even though he has not been able to visit Gaza—as foreign photographers are not permitted to work there—he has been moved by the images emerging from the enclave.

“If there's a connection between the Afghan girl and Gaza, perhaps there's a—I've always thought with the look of Sharbat Gula, there's a resilience and a sense of fortitude,” McCurry said.

McCurry’s new exhibition, which made its world premiere in Istanbul, is drawing photography enthusiasts at the Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Center as part of the Istanbul Culture Road Festival, supported by Türkiye’s Culture and Tourism Ministry.

McCurry said it was a pleasure to return to Istanbul, a city he has visited many times over the past five decades.

“I've been here many times over 50 years, so it's always a pleasure to come back here and present my work,” he said.

McCurry credited curator Anne Morin with the concept behind the exhibition.

“This was really her idea and her vision, and she's gone through my archive in a very deep way and come up with this very interesting approach to my work. So, I'm honored and delighted to be here and to have worked with Anne and to come up with this very unusual, I think very interesting, new look at my body of work,” he said.

The exhibition, McCurry said, offers a broader perspective on his photography.

“I think not only the curation, but also the design of the show, the lighting and the light boxes and whatnot. I think it's a very creative direction, and I think I'm very proud to be here,” he said.

‘Photography lets us see who we were’

Focusing much of his life’s work on Asia, where he first traveled in 1978, McCurry said: “I went there first in 1978, and I sort of kind of got stuck in that region of the world, and I kept going back over and over again, 50, probably 100 times. That was really the place, that region was really the part of the world that I always gravitated to.”

McCurry underlined that photography is vital not only for journalism but also for documentation.

“I think having a record of who we were, how we looked, our cities, our towns, the way we conducted ourselves, human behavior, I think it's fascinating to go back and look at pictures from 100, 150 years ago and see how we were, a record of how we looked,” he said.

“I think it's so important to have that memory, go back and see what life was like in Istanbul in 1860, you know, what did it look like? And it's just fascinating to be able to look into the past, and without photography you wouldn't have that opportunity,” he added.

He noted that while people once dressed very differently depending on where they came from, today those distinctions have largely disappeared.

“I don't think somebody that does what I do, or an artist, or somebody who does it out of love for the craft and the art, I don't think we ever retire. I don't think I would ever stop eating, or maybe breathing, or whatever. So it's something that you just do because that's your life,” McCurry said.

He said he hopes that what remains of his work “will offer some insight into what life was like — how people related to each other, to animals, and to the planet,” serving as a lasting record of the world he witnessed.

McCurry said he felt lucky to have shared a long friendship with Turkish photographer Ara Guler, whom he visited whenever he came to Istanbul, describing him as generous, helpful, and “a fountain of information,” always eager to share his knowledge.

He said that, unlike many who guard their knowledge, Guler was “very giving and generous,” always sharing advice on where to go and what to do in Türkiye.

He added that they shared many good times and described Guler as both a “spectacular photographer” and a true friend. He said the exhibition represents “a portrait of humanity through the years,” rooted in the memories built in Istanbul.

‘Not just a photojournalist but almost an artist’

“What we see in that exhibition is really a portrait of humanity for many years, and that memory raised here in Istanbul, that means a lot,” curator Anne Morin told Anadolu.

She said that working in an archive requires patience: “You have to wait until the archive tells you what to do.” Over time, as she looked through the photos, “the pictures begin to speak,” gradually revealing a story.

Morin added that the exhibition explores one of the most striking aspects of McCurry’s work - “color and non-color.” For the first time, some of his photos were presented in black and white, showing new dimensions of his vision.

She said the sequence of images allows viewers to grasp “the pattern of his eyes,” how he perceives the world and reflects it back.

His sensitivity and humanity, she noted, make him “not just a photojournalist but almost an artist,” using photography as a painter uses a pencil.

The exhibition, organized as a special project for the 8th edition of 212 Photography Istanbul, will remain open at the Tophane-i Amire Culture and Arts Center until Nov. 30.

It features 25 of McCurry’s most iconic works, including the 1984 Afghan Girl portrait, alongside 160 previously unseen photographs from his archive.