UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Palmer Museum of Art will present a new exhibition, "Still Moving: Photographs by Steve McCurry," from June 14 through Sept. 18.
Internationally acclaimed photographer and 1974 Penn State graduate Steve McCurry is often on the move. Best known for “Afghan Girl, ”a haunting image of a refugee that graced the cover of National Geographic in 1985, McCurry continues to cross the globe in search of those “unguarded moments” in which the resilient human spirit is most evident, even in the face of war, forced migrations and natural disasters.
Born in 1950 in a suburb of Philadelphia, McCurry studied film at Penn State before going to work for a local newspaper. After several years of freelance work, McCurry made the first of what would become many trips to India, traveling with little more than a bag of clothes and another of film, camera in hand. Within several months he had crossed the border into Pakistan, where he met a group of Afghan refugees who helped smuggle him into their rebel-controlled country, just as it was being closed to Western journalists. Embedded with the Mujahideen, McCurry brought the world the first images of the conflict in Afghanistan. His daring coverage of that war earned him the Robert Capa Gold Medal for photographic reporting in 1980 and launched his career as a photojournalist. In 2014, the Royal Photographic Society in London honored McCurry with its Centenary Medal for Lifetime Achievement.
Co-curated by Palmer curator Joyce Robinson and Steven Rubin, associate professor of photography, "Still Moving" explores the breadth of McCurry’s remarkable oeuvre, including less familiar and recent bodies of work. Encompassing subjects ranging from intimate portraits to panoramic vistas, the exhibition also invites viewers to consider and look closely at the visual strategies that make the photographs of this peripatetic wanderer so captivating and moving.
Robinson and Rubin will lead a Gallery Talk titled "Still Moving: Photographs by Steve McCurry" at 12:10 p.m. on Friday, June 17, in the exhibition gallery located on the museum’s second floor.
Dana Carlisle Kletchka, curator of education, will lead a Gallery Talk titled "Still Moving: Photographs by Steve McCurry," at 12:10 p.m. on Friday, July 15, in the exhibition gallery located on the museum’s second floor.
Also on view at the Palmer Museum of Art this summer are "American Art in the Shadow of World War I," from May 17 through Aug. 7, and "The Prints of Jules Heller," from June 7 through Aug. 14.
The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State is located on Curtin Road and admission is free. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and some holidays.
The Palmer Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.