Published on January 6, 2025 at 2:57 p.m. / Modified on January 6, 2025 at 5:17 p.m.
6 mins. reading
It’s a green gaze that pierces us. A look that mixes dismay, reproach and deep but contained anger, concentrating the distress of the children entangled in the war. By staring at us, this gaze prevents us from looking away from their dramatic condition. Few images have become as iconic as that of this beautiful Afghan child with a hole in her veil, taken five years after the invasion of her country by the Soviet Union.
This photo of Steve McCurry made the front page of National Geographic in June 1985 and its success continues despite the years that pass, on the contrary. The one who for a long time was only “the young Afghan girl”, causing excitement throughout the world, has had a name since 2002: Sharbat Gula. Stars have acquired an original, like Brian Molko, frontman of the group Placebo, who had nothing hanging on his bare walls except it even though he had barely moved into his London loft in the early years 2000. And at auction, at Christie’s in 2012, this photo was sold for 178,900 dollars, one of the records for photojournalism, even if it remains very far from millions spent on art photos.
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