Sharp eye for the human soul

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The New York-based photographer travels nine months a year.

"My job is very pleasurable," he says. "I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fulfilling and didn't give meaning to my life. I cannot imagine what could be more interesting than traveling the world and seeing all its geography, cultures, landscapes and people."

McCurry infuses even the most tragic shot with beauty, and the composition with chromatic harmony.

His photographs of life in the Tibet autonomous region are like a haunting silent movie, and are considered to be one of his most iconic series.

"My first trip to the Tibet autonomous region featured a visit to Tashi Lhunpo monastery, on assignment for a book entitled A Day in the Life of China," he says. He has returned many times to the Himalayan plateau where he captured the day-to-day spiritual existence of the Tibetans. He photographed monks, pilgrims and children. In 1999, he shot pictures for a black-and-white work entitled The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage, which was published in 2003.

McCurry also showed me a picture he had taken from the roof of his apartment following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York. Just one image of his painful reportage that showed the incredible devastation at Ground Zero.

"Sometimes I have been in places of overriding beauty, sometimes in places I'd like to forget. But nothing has dented my faith in the human spirit or in unexpected human kindness," he says.