The Afghanistan Girl Analysis

Steve McCurry took this image of “The Afghan Girl” in 1989, it’s one of the most powerful portraits to ever courtesy the National Geographic Magazine’s cover to this day. This image has become a prized possession along with a global symbol, and for a photographer, that’s like winning the Nobel Prize.
Since the late 1800’s National Geographic Magazine has had their readers on the edge of their seats with spectacular stories and photos from around the globe. The overpowering “images leave lasting imprints in the mind of its readers.” (1) Photographers do extreme acts to get that profound shot for the Magazine. Many photographers want their images exclusively on the cover, those images become valued symbols to the world. National Geographic photojournalist Amy Toensing said “I have one of the most misunderstood jobs in the world!” (2). She’s indeed right, people think that photojournalists and photographers just travel around the world and take pictures,
Photographers can get an amazing image of something they didn’t know was out there and that can be fulfilling and incredibly rewarding to their career. “It sounds romantic to travel the world, but you must be emotionally self-reliant,” Ami Vitale tells Kara Tiernan while giving her an interview. “I look back on experiences I had and now wonder how I got through some of them. They were sometimes unimaginable, often lonely and occasionally utterly terrifying.” (3) Even though the experiences she has had might not have been ideal, they have changed her life for the good. Ami hopes her work can preserve the wonders of the world that she gets to photograph, along with impacting the minds of others. So, maybe there are some dangers that national geographic photographers and photojournalists face, but in the end, it’s all worth it. From the bad experiences to the good, being a photographer is not just a job, it’s a lifestyle and a huge