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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Photo Analysis- Afghan Girl



This photo as some of you may know from the National Geographic magazine, taken by Steve McCurry, is called the "Afghan Girl". McCurry took this picture of, who he found out 17 years later whose name is Sharbat Gula, while in a refugee camp in Pakistan, away from the Soviets bombing her home in Afghanistan.

Viewers can't help but keep their sights on the piercing sea green eyes of this girl. It's difficult to decide if this girl was trying to look serious or if there was some form of genuine fear inside of her. Today we are trained to believe that all girls on the cover of a magazine are purposefully intending to have a mysterious look but have no meaning behind the stare. In this case, her eyes reflect both fear and power.

However, when this photo was taken, there was no glamour influence behind it. In a dark background, her bright green eyes symbolize the light at the end of the tunnel and the hope that the people of Afghanistan had regarding their future to one day be free from the bombing of the Soviets. Many times a picture with such intensity and is put in black in white but in this case, the color does not take away from the deep meaning of the picture.

She is the center of the picture and there are no other objects in the photo that may give the viewer any sort of clue on what the picture is about, if they didn't know already. The lighting in this picture seems to touch every inch of the picture making the source of it, then sun. Although this girl looks young, her face seems aged and looks leather-like which is probably caused by the immense amount of time spent in the sun or the large amount of stress, sadness and anger she has. As well as her face, her clothes are torn up and rugged making the viewer assume that her life is surrounded by aging, poverty and hardship. This girl, although not intending to do so, comes across as scared probably due to the unfamiliarity she has with the photographer, but also hope for the Afghani people because of the light and passion in her eyes.

I have included a link below so you can see the "Afghan Girl" then and now.


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