Afghan Girl on National Geographic Magazine Cover
Afghan Girl on National Geographic Magazine Cover
Steve Mccurry
I chose this photograph as it made a great impression around the world. This is the photo of an Afghan girl on the cover of National Geographic with her beautiful alluring eyes. The photographer Steve McCurry did not know her name, but the picture made headlines for its stark portrayal of beauty in a dire situation. The girl was shot in a refugee camp when she was a teenager. The shocking popularity of the picture motivated the magazine to search for the girl 17 years later and featured her tale on another cover story. That's how powerful this photograph was.
Her name was Sharbat Gula, which means "sweetwater flower girl" in Pashtu, the language of her Pashtun tribe. Sharbat Gula came to Pakistan in 1983 after her parents were both killed in a Soviet air raid on their Afghan village. She had trudged through the jagged mountains in winter for nearly two weeks with her grandmother, brother, and three sisters. She had lived in several refugee camps before coming to the one where McCurry met her.
In my opinion, this photo summed up for me the trauma and plight, and the whole situation of suddenly having to flee your home and end up in refugee camp, hundreds of miles away. I think that this searingly beautiful image of a young girl with haunting eyes, indeed symbolizes the plight and the pain and the strength of her people.
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