Steve McCurry on the photo books that inspire him

For two decades, photojournalist Steve McCurry has brought us unforgettable glimpses of the everyday and the extraordinary. Of his favourite photographers, he says, “Their work says so much about humanity and a particular era. It’s fascinating both for the historical and human value.”

Flip through the gallery to check out his favourites

The Decisive Moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson

This introduction to Cartier-Bresson’s work also proves why he is often regarded as the father of street photography. His perfectly-timed black and white imagery conveys several moods in a single frame.

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Personal Exposures by Elliott Erwitt

You’ll find both humour and tragedy lurking in the prolific French photographer’s work, which does justice to the pedestrian as well as the momentous, like the picture of Jacqueline Kennedy at her husband’s funeral.

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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee and Walker Evans

The writer-photographer duo’s best-loved work is a poetic, unrelenting account of three impoverished sharecropping families in the American Deep South. 

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The Americans by Robert Frank

Swiss-born Frank’s stirring documentation of the lives of factory workers, transvestites and indigenous people is regarded as the blueprint for modern photography. 

Steve McCurry’s India (Phaidon/Roli Books) is out now