Mason Hartley Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry, an American Photojournalist.  Or at least that's what everyone thought.  Steve McCurry is famous for his photography, including his award-winning photo "Afghan Girl".  Graduating from Pennsylvania State University in 1974, McCurry was rising in his profession and fame for his unbelievable photography.  That all came to a halt in 2016, as the alleged "McCurry Scandal" arose.  After looking at all the evidence, I'd say he was right in certain areas while wrong in others.  

Steve McCurry sent several of his photos to National Geographic titling himself as a photojournalist.  National Geographic accepts photographs that meet certain guidelines; one being "cloning".  Not only does it say that cloning is NOT allowed, it also explains what it is as well as gives examples.  It does say that you are allowed to add filters to your images to make them more appealing.  You can bring up the saturation a little, but you can't move a pole.  So, is Steve McCurry wrong for editing his pictures in this way? No, I believe not.  However, he was wrong to send National Geographic the manipulated versions of the photographs.  In my personal opinion, I'd prefer the edited pictures to the original.  The edits clean up the image to tell a clearer story and portray a stronger emotion.  This would've been fine if he would have sent the originals to National Geographic.  McCurry was then confronted with being accused of manipulating his images, taking away the reality in each one.  Instead of denying the accusation, he stated that he is no longer a photojournalist, instead, he is now an artist.  This seems like a bit of a cop-out to me, otherwise, he would've made the change a little more public like his original title.  

The only thing that doesn't make any sense, did he want to get caught?  For a man that professional, I would think he would play the business a little smarter.  Not only did he send manipulated images to National Geographic but posted both the edited and original versions of the same images on his website.  I understand people get busy and forget things but that seems a little obvious.  But how did he get caught?  It was actually unintentional.  Another photographer, Paolo Viglione, noticed the "photoshop fail" on the picture with the sign cut in half.  Viglione then posted a zoomed in version on his blog as a funny Easter egg.  Although Viglione claimed to have not meant any harm to McCurry, it started a public witch hunt for any other mistakes he may have made.  All of this closer attention to detail toward his work caused people to notice pictures they've seen on National Geographic.  This eventually lead to the public weeding out all of his illegally submitted images.  Because of all the attention to those "faked" images, McCurry has removed them from his website.    

So was Steve McCurry wrong for editing his pictures? I would say no.  However, it was very wrong of him to ignore the policies of National Geographic and submit the doctored photos.  There is a lot missing to the puzzle and not all the pieces fit, so it's hard to tell what the real truth is.  But when you look at what happened one thing's for sure, it doesn't make sense unless he wanted to get caught for attention or someone else wanted him to get caught to ruin his career. 


                                                     Works Cited:


"Botched Steve McCurry Print Leads to Photoshop Scandal." PetaPixel, 7 May 2016,
petapixel.com/2016/05/06/botched-steve-mccurry-print-leads-photoshop-scandal/.

"Eyes of the Afghan Girl: A Critical Take on the 'Steve McCurry Scandal'." PetaPixel, 8 June 2016,
petapixel.com/2016/06/07/eyes-afghan-girl-critical-take-steve-mccurry-scandal/.

"Steve McCurry." Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 July 2018,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McCurry.

"Your Shot Photo Guidelines." National Geographic Your Shot,
yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photo-guidelines/.