Steve McCurry is a truly iconic figure in the world of modern photography. Absolutely everyone, even if they are not connected with art and creativity, knows at least one of their works. Namely, a photo portrait of an Afghan girl that graced the cover of the National Geographic magazine in 1985.

Steve McCurry became the first Western photojournalist to capture the events of the military conflict in Afghanistan. For more than 40 years of active work, the man has repeatedly found himself in the thick of events, but refused to call himself a "war reporter", saying that he prefers to capture not death but life.

Working at the intersection of reportage and documentary photography, he chose the path of a bridge between cultures. He visited Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan many times, and traveled to Europe and the Americas. But the main feature of Steve McCurry's photos has always been and remains their universality: wherever we are and how we live, the captured feelings and emotions will be understandable and will find a response in the soul of each of us.

35 photos of people and animals by Steve McCurry

Today I would like to share with you some very special shots by the Maestro. There are people and animals, together: as friends and comrades, as neighbors — desired or forced. These photos are a reminder of our unity and our differences, but most of all of the respect that every living creature on the beautiful planet Earth deserves.

On the photographer's official website, these images are combined into a separate album. Instead of the description, a poem by Irish poet Cecile Frances Alexander is given. Below is the first stanza:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

A boy with a lamb, India

A young man and an elephant. Chiang Mai, Thailand

A man with a cow. Jaipur, India

A man and his dog are reading a newspaper. Rome, Italy

A parrot with sunglasses. Paraguay

A girl with a cock in her arms. Omo valley, Ethiopia

A woman feeds pigeons. Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan

A shepherd with a flock of sheep. Magdeburg, Germany

A girl and sleeping dogs. Varanasi, India

A man and a woman feed pigeons. Afghanistan

A man kisses a rooster. Afghanistan

A young man with a white rat on his shoulders. Chennai, India

A young man with a tamed iguana. Los Angeles, California, USA

A boy and a cow sleep together on the street. Kathmandu, Nepal

A snake crawls past a sleeping mother with a child. Tonle Sap, Cambodia

An old man sleeps on a bench, a dog is under the bench. Mumbai, India

A boy holds a lamb in his arms. Bamiyan, Afghanistan

A girl with a cow. India

A boy with a snake around his neck. India

A domestic cat. Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan

Resting together. Mandalay, Myanmar

An old man is studying a Buddhist treatise with a cat and a kitten on his laps. India

A boy with a puppy in his arms. Litang, Tibet

A man and his dog. Ireland

A boy with a goat. Tibet

A young man and an elephant. Chiang Mai, Thailand

A woman and deer cross a stream. Mongolia

A man and his horse. Ecuador

A curious camel. India

A bedouin with a camel in a desert. Morocco

Hunters. Mongolia

An old man and his granddaughter are taking a goat home. India

Comrades. Afghanistan

Cowboys and their mounts. Lombari, Brazil

A woman and a falcon. Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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