Photographer Page

Steve McCurry

Monks at Gampo Abbey practice for an annual softball game against the local fire department in Nova Scotia, Canada. The image was taken for a story in the December 2005 issue on Buddhism in the global west.

Two Afghan fighters seek scant cover during the conflict in 2001. The United States invaded Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks.

Before the desert sand swallowed them up, the walls around this farm in Mauritania measured four feet high. Overgrazing and deforestation, when added to the Sahel's drought, have led the desert to expand quickly, pushing people to more hospitable climes.

A M1A1 tank lofts a round toward Iraqi positions. The tank’s enourmous cannon fired dart-shaped shells—some charged with depleted uranium—that travelled a mile a second and easily pierced enemy tanks.

Reflecting the passions of Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal in Agra was built in the mid-1600s as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Later he was buried beside her. Covering most of India—and known under Shah Jahan's grandfather Akbar for religious tolerance—the Mogul Empire collapsed in the early 1700s. Photo Tip: Unusual perspectives and composition can make familiar subjects more fun.

Men fish on wooden stilts off the south coast of Sri Lanka.

Women shield themselves against strong winds that precede the monsoon in Rajasthan, India, in this 1984 National Geographic photo.

This portrait of Sharbat Gula, an Afghan refugee with haunted eyes, ran on the cover of National Geographic in 1985, searing itself into hearts and memories around the world.

Members of a traditional Khmer dance troupe wait to perform a tourist show. In 2000, National Geographic reported that some Cambodians were reclaiming their culture decades after the violent reign of the Khmer Rouge.