SCHLESWIG.- American Steve McCurry is one of the finest and best-known photographers of our time. He has been a member of the Magnum Photos agency since 1986.

His documentation of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 won him the coveted Robert Capa Gold Medal. His bond with this subject matter ultimately made him world famous: his photo of the Afghan refugee girl with the incredible green eyes in a camp in Pakistan, which leaves no observer unmoved, appeared on the cover of National Geographic and was printed countless times all over the world. Steve McCurry been honoured at the World Press Photo Awards six times and his outstanding skill is documented in numerous volumes of his pictures.

The work of Steve McCurry can be seen for the first time in a comprehensive solo exhibition in the form of a retrospective developed by Magnum Photos in collaboration with the Städtische Galerie Iserlohn and Stadtmuseum Schleswig. The exhibition will run through May 17, 2009 at the Stadtmuseum Schleswig.

Steve McCurry was born in Philadelphia, and graduated from Pennsylvania State University. After working at a newspaper for two years, he left to freelance in India.

His career was launched when, wearing native clothing, he crossed the Pakistan border into rebel-controlled Afghanistan just before the Russian invasion. When he emerged, he had rolls of film sewn into his clothes that contained some of the world's first images of the conflict. His coverage won the Robert Capa Gold Medal for Best Photographic Reporting from Abroad Showing Courage and Enterprise. He has won numerous awards including the National Press Photographers' Association award for Magazine Photographer of the Year and an unprecedented four first prizes in the World Press Photo contest.

McCurry has covered many areas of international and civil conflict, including the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, Beirut, Cambodia, the Philippines, the Gulf War and continuing coverage of Afghanistan. His work has been featured in magazines around the globe. His reportage for National Geographic has included Tibet, Afghanistan, Burma, India, Iraq, Yemen, Buddhism, and the temples of Angkor Wat.

A high point in his career was finding Sharbat Gula, the previously unidentified Afghan refugee girl, whose picture has been described as one of the most recognizable photographs in the world.