Best photographic reporting or interpretation from abroad requiring exceptional courage and enterprise
AWARD YEAR: 1980
AWARD NAME: The Robert Capa Gold Medal
RECIPIENT: Steve McCurry
AFFILIATION: TIME
HONORED WORK: “Afghanistan—the Hidden War”
Before Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Steve McCurry joined Afghan rebels on forays from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Shaving his head, darkening his skin, and wearing traditional native clothes, he lived with the rebels on rice and tea, in their camps, joining in their Moslem prayers. He photographed men girding for war, women selling jewelry to buy bullets, forced marches along treacherous mountain trails eluding army patrols, strafings and bombings by Soviet helicopter gunships. McCurry, 30, produced a series on “Afghanistan—the Hidden War” that ran in TIME throughout 1980.
Citations for Excellence:
Vladimir Sichov
LIFE magazine
“The Russia They Won’t Let Us See”
A special citation went to Olivier Rebbot, who was killed by a sniper in El Salvador on assignment for Newsweek.