Film Review - McCurry: The Pursuit of Colour
Images courtesy of Cinema Nova.
I don’t know why I was so surprised by the stunning cinematography featured in a documentary about one of the most prolific photographers of our time. When I say it out loud like that, I can clearly see the fault in my logic, but maybe I’ve just never seen an auteur doing their business quite like Steve McCurry.
Who’s this McCurry you’re about to hear about for the next 320 words? Well, he’s that one guy that took the really nice photo of the Afghani girl with piercing green eyes during their civil war in the ‘70’s. Surely, you’ve seen it - it’s everywhere! If for whatever reason you haven’t yet, worry not for McCurry wastes no time in indulging in the backstory of it for a significant runtime of this feature.
As to be expected, the picture is McCurry’s opus, but don’t let me detract from the depth of McCurry, a documentary that touches every corner of its namesake’s life. Filtering through catalyst moments of disrepair and agony, the beginnings of this career are ripe with nuggets of wisdom, sprinkled throughout offering audiences a glimpse behind the smoke and mirrors of a famously isolated, weird photographer. Who would’ve known that his first photography gig paid a measly $120 per week? Certainly not his friends and family, he was too embarrassed to tell them!
Tracing the embers of his career to the well-oiled machine that his production company has become today is a stark contrast, especially considering the absolutely gorgeous shooting of McCurry, the globetrotter, retracing some of his most famous steps – although, his omission of an Afghanistan return was an unfortunate reminder of the current state of world affairs.
The chapters of his life in Afghanistan are retold in a well-lit, professional looking white room, tucked away in some studio in the west. Though nothing is boring enough to detract the aura of his words, these scenes stand in stark stasis of the vibrant, rich scenes of bustling life when McCurry hits the ground running, boarding planes and slicing through dense crowds of streets and markets throughout India and Asia.
Seeing the man at work is as one guest notes, ‘a reflection of his person’. Following along within his shadow as the legend discerns locations, chiselling angles and painstakingly slugging through the aftermath of war and the archives of his rent-a-shed, reproduce a well-lived life on the road.
McCurry: The Pursuit of Colour is screening only at Cinema Nova from Thursday 6th October. For tickets and more info, click here.