Artist Blog 2-Giovann Collazo

Giovann Collazo

Old Dominion University

http://stevemccurry.com/galleries/nepal-0

    These photos belong to the photographer Steve McCurry. These were taken in villages around all over Nepal. I don't know exactly what camera he used but I believe he used a Canon of some sort.In the first photo he looks to be standing right next to the boy-maybe three feet away. In the second photo he uses the dark background to emphasize the dirt that clings to the baby's shirt and skin. The third photo shows a Nepalese woman picking at work picking rice from the field. She is staring right into the lens with a smile. McCurry looks to be  anywhere from fifteen feet to twenty feet from her.

 McCurry seems to latch onto the hardworking lives of these Nepalese people. The first picture shows that the boy is caring a basket on his back. his hands are very dirty and sooty, which probably suggests that the boy works with coal. He also appears to be caught off guard in the photo yet very at ease with a strange foreigner taking his picture. The second picture shows a crying baby in pigtails and dirty tattered clothing. But why is the baby crying? Is there something bothering it that was perhaps cropped out of the photo? Whatever she's crying for, it shows that McCurry was trying to emphasize the how the Nepalese are very hardworking and that the baby has no one to console it. The woman picking rice in the field looks as though she is content with her lifestyle. She gives a warm but seemingly rushed smile as she tends to the task at hand.

I, as an emerging photographer, feel very challenged to write how I responded to these photos. The boy carrying the basket full of coal seems to tell me that this boy works very long and very hard to earn his keep in his family. He also has a look of urgency on his face that says he's got somewhere to be. The baby who is crying and dirty looks very distressed and ignored! It sends a message to the audience that the baby might be neglected or she's crying because she's dirty because she wants to be washed! The woman gives a warm feeling that shows that she loves to do the work that she does and that she might be a mother getting food for her family.