October 8, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
The inaugural Live from...National Geographic event in Santa Barbara features an evening with acclaimed photographer Steve McCurry
Summary Facts:
- Steve McCurry
- An Evening with the Photographer
- An award-winning National Geographic and Magnum agency photographer
- McCurry photographed the indelible image “The Afghan Girl”
- First in a series of Live from...National Geographic events
- A Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the UCSB College of Creative Studies
- Co-presented by Brooks Institute of Photography and UCSB Arts & Lectures
- Monday, November 4
- 8 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- General public $12, UCSB & Brooks Institute students $8
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Photographer Steve McCurry, renowned for his evocative and moving photographs including the famous “Afghan Girl,” one of the most recognized images in the world, will present an illustrated lecture on Monday, November 4 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. A member of the prestigious Magnum agency and a National Geographic photographer for over 20 years, Steve McCurry has covered numerous global hostilities, including Beirut and the Iran-Iraq war. He first came to public acclaim for his photos from rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion in 1979. The images on the rolls of film, smuggled out of the country in the lining of his clothes, would end up bringing world attention to the area and would win McCurry the Overseas Press Club’s Robert Capa Gold Medal for photographic reporting “requiring exceptional courage and enterprise.” In his career, he has survived both a plane crash at sea and a beating and near drowning by zealous crowds at a religious festival in India. He has been reported killed twice.
Steve McCurry is the recipient of numerous awards, including Magazine Photographer of the Year, awarded by the National Press Photographers Association, and Photographer of the Year, awarded by American Photo Magazine. In 1984 he won an unprecedented four first prizes in the World Press Photo Contest. In addition to being published in National Geographic, his work has appeared in Time, Life, Newsweek and many other publications.
Born in Philadelphia, McCurry graduated cum laude from the College of Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. After working at a newspaper for two years, he left for India to freelance, hoping to develop a portfolio and to feed his wanderlust. He would frequently return to Asia, one of his favorite regions to photograph. Asia is also a frequent subject for his books, including 2002’s Sanctuary: The Temples of Angkor (Phaidon Books), 2001’s South Southeast (Phaidon Books) and 1988’s Monsoon (Thames & Hudson). The Washington Times claims, “Steve McCurry succeeds on every visual and symbolic level. He introduces us to a world not often seen before, seizes fleeting and defining action, engages our senses and emotions, he harmonizes a simplicity of vision with the subject—and does it all with lyric style.”
To see extensive Real Player interview clips with Steve McCurry, visit the website Steve McCurry: South Southeast. McCurry also has his own website at www.stevemccurry.com.
This event inaugurates a new collaboration between UCSB Arts & Lectures and the Brooks Institute of Photography that enables the presentation of the acclaimed lecture series Live from...National Geographic in Santa Barbara. Featuring some of the most celebrated photographers, explorers, authors and scientists in the world, this enthralling illustrated program will feature remarkable people who explore the world while on assignment for National Geographic. Currently Live from...National Geographic occurs in only four cities (San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Santa Barbara). Educators please note: Online lesson plans are offered in conjunction with this speaker series at www.nationalgeographic.com/lectures/.
The Live from...National Geographic series will continue this winter with renowned anthropologist Wade Davis presenting the illustrated lecture Vanishing Cultures, Enduring Lives on Thursday, February 13 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. Davis has examined indigenous life in places as remote and diverse as the Canadian Arctic, the rain forests of the Amazon and the deserts of North Africa. He might be most famous for the Serpent and the Rainbow, his study of Haiti’s voodoo culture. This event will be presented in association with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The spring lecture will present one of the world’s leading underwater photographers David Doubilet on Tuesday, April 22 at 8 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall.
Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, books by Steve McCurry will be available for purchase and signing. This lecture is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and Brooks Institute of Photography and sponsored by KEYT 1250 Radio and the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Tickets for an evening with Steve McCurry are $12 for the general public and $8 for UCSB & Brooks Institute students.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.