Facing the World

It is perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken: the spellbinding image of 12-year-old refugee Sharbat Gula and her piercing green eyes, who became a global icon when she appeared on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic and became known as the ‘Afghan Girl’.

The photographer? Steve McCurry, who found Gula in a Pakistan refugee camp and framed the portrait that fired the imaginations of millions of people worldwide.

Today, the multi-award-winning photographer continues to travel to the most fascinating and remote destinations on the planet for leading news organisations, magazines and exclusive clients.

His latest partnership with Silversea Cruises is his passport to the line’s 900 voyages of discovery from the Arctic to the Galapagos Islands, and this unique photographic essay is a personal and intimate showcase of his global explorations.

“A Silversea cruise is about exploring the world,” says McCurry. “It’s about curiosity, celebrating different cultures, and seeing and appreciating the world in transition because it changes so rapidly.

“We are all explorers,” he adds. “It doesn’t matter how far you go, or how often or how long you travel for, we do it because every step we take, our souls become larger, richer and more defined. Life wouldn’t be life without a little curiosity. The world is full of opportunities, we just have to go out and take them.”

For more about Silversea Cruises and Steve McCurry’s stunning photography, visit silversea.com and stevemccurry.com.