Steve McCurry Icons Exhibition

Passing through Brussels a few weeks ago heading home from Ghent by train, we had half a day to spare; just by chance we stumbled on the Steve McCurry “Icons” exhibition at La Bourse in the Grande Place, right in the city centre. What a find! Steve is the renowned National Geographic photographer world-famous for his photograph “Afghan Girl”, an image of a young refugee with green eyes. It is a wonderful exhibition with over one hundred of his images, beautifully presented on backlit panels that accentuate the vivid colours of his images. A truly inspirational exhibition that we could so easily have missed.

There is a video to watch, with Steve explaining about the images, how they were made, the preparation and organisation needed to be in the right place at the right time and the team needed to achieve these stunning images taken in some of the most dangerous and inaccessible places on earth.

Steve McCurry, has been honoured with the most prestigious awards, such as the Robert Capa Gold Medal and the National Press Photographers Award. “The Icons exhibition will offer the public an intimate and immersive journey into the photographic world of Steve McCurry,” the organisers said in a press release. It will take visitors “on a journey with people of different ages, cultures and origins, whom he has portrayed with surprising strength and naturalness”.

The retrospective was previously exhibited in Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, Chicago, Sydney and Melbourne and was in London in 2022.