Topic: Steve McCurry

[DaveO]

    Just wondering what camera, lens, and film he used to take the famous Afghan Girl picture. Was it a Nikon FM2 or a Leica M?

[Steven.]

for film he used kodachrome 64. i know he shoots nikon (from videos ive seen) but as to the exact set up i have no clue.

[Late Developer]

I went to a major retrospective of his at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in October 2010. Each of the shots (including Afghan Girl") was labelled and K64 was definitely used. I am also pretty certain it was a Nikon as I've seen various references to his shooting Nikon whilst in Afghanistan on assignment in the mid-80s.

The shot was taken in 1984 and appeared on the front of Nat Geo in 1985. Therefore, as the last professional quality Nikon made before the end of 1994 was the FM2 series (1982 - 2000) it could have been an FM2 or possibly an FM2n as the "n" version was introduced in 1984. However, unless he was shooting an assignment with the very latest gear - probably a bit risky until it was proven - my guess is that it will probably have been shot using an F2 or an F3.

If you haven't seen it already, there's some incredible photography of his on:

http://stevemccurry.com/
http://stevemccurry.com/blog

[DaveO]

 Thanks for the links, I have seen a lot of the pictures before.

[DaveO]

     Someone on the Nikongear forum found the picture on Wikipedia. It was taken with an FM2 and a 105 f/2.5 lens in 1984.

[astrobeck]

Cool, another interview is here:
http://www.quesabesde.com/noticias/steve-mccurry,1_en_2524

[DaveO]

    Thanks for the link, I have never seen this before.

[Late Developer]

Thanks for the links, I have seen a lot of the pictures before.

The good thing about his blog is that he adds stuff to it regularly - so there's often something new.

@ Astrobeck - great find. Very interesting read as I'm a BIG fan of Steve McCurry.

[DaveO]

    If you want to see some more amazing pictures, look up Gregory Crewdson. He uses large format cameras and does unbelievable work. His pictures look like Norman Rockwell paintings!