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"What is important to my work is the individual picture. I photograph stories on assignment, and of course they have to be put together coherently. But what matters most is that each picture stands on its own, with its own place and feeling." - Steve McCurry.

Steve McCurry is renowned for his evocative and beautiful portraiture and penetrating documentary photography. Driven by an innate curiosity and a sense of wonder about the world, he has become one of the leading figures in photography today. His stories of human experience cross boundaries of language and culture to capture the inner spirit of his subjects and the essence of human struggle.

McCurry has produced numerous memorable images and has been featured frequently in the National Geographic Magazine. Breathtaking images like the famous “Afghan Girl,” have become modern day icons.

The Path to Buddha is an intimate and uplifting insight into the unique and dignified culture of Tibet. With this new exhibition McCurry takes us on a Himalayan journey, revealing the sheer beauty of Tibet while examining the Buddhist religion and capturing the life of Buddhist monks. Capturing brief encounters, without artificial lighting or staged settings, he delves into the world of his proud and dignified subjects. Over the course of many years and multiple visits, McCurry traveled to Tibet and northern India, home of the Dalai Lama and the government in exile, compiling this timeless visual diary.

“…these precious windows into the Tibetan world through which these brave and beautiful human beings reach out to us by being their open-hearted selves. Path to Buddha it is a path to Buddha through a great heart- the great heart a people develops from centuries of hard-fought spiritual development and maintains under the terrible duress of colonial occupation.”Robert Thurman-The Path to Buddha.

About Steve McCurry
Born in Philadelphia, Steve McCurry studied history and cinematography at Pennsylvania State University. He worked at a newspaper for two years before leaving for India to freelance as a photographer. It was in India that McCurry learned to watch and wait on life. If you wait, he realized, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view.

McCurry’s career was launched when he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes; images that would be published around the world as some of the first to show that conflict. For more than 20 years he has covered areas of international and civil conflict, including the Iran-Iraq war, the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, Beirut, Cambodia, Yemen, the Philippines and the Gulf War. He continues to cover Afghanistan, focusing on the human consequences of conflict and war. Steve McCurry became a full member of the prestigious Magnum Photo Agency in 1986.

"Most of my images are grounded in people, and I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landscape, that I guess you'll call the human condition." Steve McCurry.

McCurry’s books include The Imperial Way (1985), Monsoon (1988), Portraits (1999), South Southeast (2000), Sanctuary (2002), The Path to Buddha: A Tibetan Pilgrimage (2003), Steve McCurry (2005), and Looking East (2006). McCurry's work has been featured in every major magazine in the world and frequently appears in National Geographic magazine, with recent articles on Tibet, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Steve McCurry has won numerous awards and honors including the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award, the National Press Photographers Association “Magazine Photographer of the Year” and in 1985 he was awarded four first place awards by the World Press Photo Competition. In 1986 and 1992 he was awarded “Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad” by the Overseas Press Club. In 1992, he won a further three first place awards from the World Press Photo, received the “Award of Excellence” from the National Press Photographers Association and was named “Photographer of the Year” by American Photo. McCurry lives in New York.

The Path to Buddha premieres at the Southeast Museum of Photography and was produced with the cooperation and assistance of Magnum Photos, New York and Steve McCurry.