A new look.

Steve McCurry is best known for his third world photography for National Geographic. His work is exceptionally good and he is a seemingly tireless and much travelled photographer.

So to learn that McCurry is photographing the 2013 Pirelli calendar comes as a surprise. The models are all photographed in Rio de Janeiro and the overall look is dark and sombre. Quite a break with Pirelli’s tradition, and how McCurry did not get mugged and robbed in this most dangerous of cities is a mystery, especially as much of the photography was done in the scandalous slums overlooking the city where gangs and guns rule. The recent movie Fast Five does an excellent job of showing the favelas up close, and is also immensely entertaining.

McCurry’s style of working is the antithesis of the motor driven yob who generally typifies fashion snappers in the public’s imagination. No long hair, two-day beard, bad language, torn jeans or reversed baseball cap, he works quietly and methodically, mostly using a tripod, and is most charming, self effacing and gentlemanly. There is obvious rapport with his models who presumably have seen it all by now, and I found it especially touching that he makes the time to show his subjects their images on the LCD screen of his camera. In many ways, McCurry’s fame exceeds that of his models, yet he makes no issue of it.

The video is well worth watching, with McCurry using a digital Hasselblad and a loudly advertised Nikon D3x – gotta repay all that free gear! No photographer in his right mind would use the garish stock straps which come with Canon and Nikon gear, but I suppose if sponsorship money is involved, that’s a different matter. And inept as the straps are, if your free camera falls to the ground who cares? It’s the only jarring note in an otherwise interesting documentary piece.

Click the picture for the video.

While the final images shown in the video seem over processed to my eye – too much action on the Vibrance and Saturation sliders if you ask me – they are striking, especially those of Karlie Kloss toward the end. It’s also pretty special to see that all of these affluent women are doing so much to help the poor and sick. What a fine way to leverage fame to bring attention to third world issues.

McCurry blogs two to three times a month with very generous helpings of his wonderful photographs. You can see his blog and sign up for the RSS feed here. His work is no stranger to poverty and you will see many images of the poor of India, Pakistan, northern Africa, Russia and so on. Sadly there is no shortage of similar subjects for his fine eye.