Latest news with #SteveMcCurry
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
‘Am I on television?': Steve McCurry's cameo in girls' dance video wins hearts on the Internet
It's not every day that you end up dancing on the streets of Venice with a legendary photographer, without even realising it. But that's what happened in a now-viral Instagram reel that's left the Internet grinning. The video opens with two girls filming a dance to a trending audio clip against the dreamy backdrop of Venice. Midway through, iconic photojournalist Steve McCurry – behind the famed Afghan Girl portrait – wanders into the frame. Startled, the girls pause their routine. McCurry, curious and smiling, asks, 'Am I on television?' One of them laughs and explains it's just a Reel for Instagram. Then, McCurry steps up to the camera, says, 'Hi, welcome to Venice,' and sends a few flying kisses. When the girls invite him to dance, he gladly joins – swaying and laughing, completely unbothered by the attention. The girls, meanwhile, had no idea who he was until the Reel went viral. The Reel, shared by Instagram user @mukhlisaa_italy, is captioned, '@stevemccurryofficial truly honoured to meet you in person. Didn't realize I was in the presence of such talent. It was an unexpected and unforgettable moment.' Since being posted, the video has garnered over 726,000 likes and 61,300 comments, with viewers across the world flooding the post with love. A post shared by Мухлиса Абдуллаева (@mukhlisaa_italy) Reacting to the video, one user said, 'This is the most beautiful reel I've seen so far.' Another wrote, 'You guys are lucky to have met him! He is a well-known photographer and photojournalist. His work has inspired many people all over the world.' A third user wrote, 'He is so good and you are too cute,' while a fourth commented, 'This is so wholesome.' McCurry, born on April 23, 1950, is best recognised for his iconic photograph 'Afghan Girl,' featuring a young girl with striking green eyes. The portrait graced the cover of the National Geographic magazine multiple times. Over the years, McCurry has completed numerous assignments for the magazine, and has been a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency since 1986. McCurry has earned several prestigious honours, including the National Press Photographers Association's Magazine Photographer of the Year, the Centenary Medal from the Royal Photographic Society, and two first-place awards in the World Press Photo contest in 1985 and 1992.
Malay Mail
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
A lens on the world goes dark: Legendary photographer Sebastiao Salgado dies at 81
PARIS, May 24 — French-Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, famed for his immense body of work depicting wildlife, landscapes and people around the world, died Friday aged 81, announced the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member. The academy said it was 'deeply saddened to announce the death... of Sebastiao Salgado', describing him as a 'great witness to the human condition and the state of the planet'. It was his large black-and-white photographs of subjects such as conflicts or the Amazon rainforest that won Salgado the greatest fame and adorned calendars, books and the walls of his fans around the world. Critics accused him of beautifying suffering but Salgado never veered from his aesthetic or his work. 'A photographer who travelled the world constantly, he contracted a particular form of malaria in 2010, in Indonesia,' his family said in a statement to AFP. 'Fifteen years later, the complications of this disease developed into severe leukaemia, which took his life,' they added. 'Emblematic figure' Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described his compatriot as 'one of the best... photographers the world has given us'. Lula, who learned the news of Salgado's passing at an official event in Brasilia with Angolan counterpart Joao Lourenco, asked attendees to observed a minute's silence for the photographer. One of Salgado's contemporaries, US photographer Steve McCurry, wrote on Instagram that 'his vision and humanity left an indelible mark on the world of photography'. 'Alongside (his wife) Lelia (Wanick), he not only documented the human condition with unmatched depth, but also helped heal the planet through their reforestation work,' he added. UNESCO Secretary General Audrey Azoulay saluted 'an immense photographer, artist and documentarist whose talent captured the ecological and anthropological upheavals of our era. 'His art raised public awareness of often unknown realities such as those of the Amazon and its indigenous peoples,' she added in posts to social media. Paris-based media rights campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF) paid tribute to an 'emblematic figure of documentary photography'. 'A photographer of all records, Sebastiao Salgado was a keen observer of mankind and nature,' it added in a statement online. RSF noted that Salgado had contributed 100 of his own photos to one of the albums it sells to raise money for it works. 'Way of life' The photographer leaves a unique legacy of images from his hundreds of journeys through the Amazon rainforest and across the planet, from Rwanda to Indonesia, from Guatemala to Bangladesh, capturing with his lens human tragedies such as famine, wars and mass exoduses. Salgado conceived photography as 'a powerful language to try to establish better relationships between humans and nature', said the French Academy of Fine Arts. He worked almost exclusively in black and white, which he saw as both an interpretation of reality and a way of conveying the fundamental dignity of humanity. Active in the left-wing student movements of the turbulent 1960s, he studied economics and in 1969, he and his wife fled to France to escape Brazil's military dictatorship. He went on to receive French citizenship. His photos of drought and famine in countries such as Niger and Ethiopia landed him a job at renowned photo agency Magnum in 1979. Photography 'is a way of life,' he told AFP in 2022, on a trip to Sao Paulo to present his exhibition 'Amazonia,' the product of seven years shooting the world's biggest rainforest. A dedicated climate activist, he was a fierce critic of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) for the far-right leader's push to open the Amazon to agribusiness and mining. Salgado also founded an environmental organisation called Instituto Terra to revive disappearing forests in his home state, Minas Gerais, a successful project joined by more than 3,000 landowners. — AFP
Khaleej Times
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Gadget Review: Leica SL3-S full-frame camera makes a visual statement
Well begun is half done, it is said. And with photography being perhaps the most accessible of art forms, you can begin without any special training – you only need to equip yourself with the right tools and then give free rein to your imagination. A tool such as the new Leica SL3-S. The art of photography is also all about the image. And with a legendary name such as Leica in your hands, you convey the right one, both in the pictures that you take and in the intent that you project. An intent of style and substance in equal measure. Connoisseurs of the art of photography know the significance of the storied Leica brand. The legendary German camera maker has been the purveyor of fine photographic equipment for exactly a hundred years now. Along the way, its cameras and lenses have been used by some of the most iconic photographers to ever pick up a camera. Think greats like the genius Frenchman Henri Cartier-Bresson or, more recently, Steve McCurry, the eye behind much of National Geographic's fabled images. While the indisputable numero uno of cameras in the age of film, Leica has extended its excellence into the digital age as well, keeping step with the changing times and developments of the photographic art form - and its extension into videography. And this year, as it turns 100, the brand has introduced the SL3-S, a 24-megapixel, full-frame system camera that builds on its SL system, combining photography and videography in a unique way. With fast autofocus and enhanced video functions, the SL3-S builds on the full-frame system based on Leica's L-Mount standard, which has firmly established the brand in the world of professional audiovisual production. According to Leica, when developing this camera, the process centred on the high demands of professional photography and videography. The key focus was on speed, flexibility and versatility. And it shows. What this camera offers is combination of the highest image quality for both photography and videography with optimum working speed and reliability. But let's start with the look and feel – things that the Leica legend is based on. If you have ever held a Leica in your hands, you can appreciate balanced ergonomics and know what premium quality feels like. The camera is also noticeably light and compact, falling beautifully to your hand with a feel that is 'just right'. The premium materials – metal and rubber – are all great to the touch, both satiny and sturdy in equal measure and securely protected by an IP54-certified solid all-metal body, which give ample hints from the get-go as to how Leica achieved its reputation for quality that lasts generations. When you take your eyes off the display and look through the viewfinder, your subject is crystal clear for you to compose a shot perfectly thanks to the sophisticated optical systems from a manufacturer that has become the benchmark for optics. The function buttons are all in the right places ergonomically and are freely assignable, while optimised touch interaction throughout the camera menu allows for intuitive and convenient operation. When taking photos and filming, the entire user interface of the SL3-S aligns itself in landscape or portrait format according to the camera position. When it comes to shooting your shot, a new BSI CMOS full-frame sensor with 24-megapixel native resolution, 48- and 96-megapixel multi-shot modes, and a new auto focus system form the core of the SL3-S. Leica combines the strengths of three focus technologies here: the latest generation in phase detection autofocus (PDAF), depth map (object detection AF), and contrast detection autofocus, which enable continuous shooting at up to 30 frames per second with full auto focus support. While this is still a notch down from the professional kit standards of the big-three camera makers – Canon, Nikon and Sony – this makes the SL3-S the fastest Leica system camera ever built. And seriously, you buy a Leica primarily as the brush to paint your photographic dreams into reality, not to take that shot of an airborne Premier League goalie for the next morning's sports pages – although with how capable the SL3-S is, even that is possible given its dynamic range of up to 15 stops and an impressive ISO range of 50 to 200,000. The SL3-S delivers excellent-quality photos and videos in all shooting conditions. And when you do produce that award-winning shot, you also get to put your indelible stamp on it with the SL3-S, so no one else can claim it in this age of digital piracy. The SL3-S is also the first camera in Leica's SL-System to be equipped with content credentials technology in accordance with the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) for photos. Each image can be signed with tamper-proof metadata, such as the camera model and author information, as well as creation and editing data. In order to prove authenticity with verifiable image content and to make edits transparent, the content credentials can be checked using freely available verification tools. The Leica SL3-S's EyeRes viewfinder has a painstakingly produced optical system of glass lenses. It displayed the subject crystal clear at all times, with up to 120 images per second and a resolution of 5.76 million pixels. Thanks to the live preview, there is full control over the exposure and composition of shots even before the shutter is released. Another new feature of the SL3-S is the tilting 3.2-inch high-res touchscreen with a high-quality tilting mechanism, which makes it even easier to take photos and videos from different angles. Hits: - Build-quality - Lens family - Imaging features Misses: - Autofocus not the fastest on the market Price: Dh19,800
