The face that remained unknown to millions for 17 years

It's one of the most famous photos of all time, and it's no wonder why.

The girl was a nameless teenage Afghani refugee who wound up on the cover of National Geographic in 1985. Seventeen years later, the photographer, Steve McCurry, decided to track her down.

Sharbat Gula

After sifting through countless tips, chasing false leads and even daring to cross a conflict-ridden border, McCurry finally caught up to her again. Her name turned out to be Sharbat Gula, and McCurry had something to tell her. Something to show her, actually: her iconic photo. It had become the face most associated with the Afghan-Soviet war and an icon for the heavy toll of war in general. And Gula knew nothing about it until McCurry tracked her down.

How did she feel about her face being known to millions of people around the world? "Meh," she was quoted as saying, so long as you don't go looking for a source.

In fact, she didn't really understand how a simple photo of her face could be important at all. To her, the photo had just been a brief moment in her life. A furious, pissed-off moment. In 1984, Gula had just fled from the ongoing Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, hoping like so many others to find safety in Pakistan. Instead, after losing her parents and trekking through the mountains with her siblings and grandmother, she found a crowded refugee camp.

After enduring all of this cosmically unfair bullshit, the young girl had her photo taken, for the first time in her life, at the refugee camp. McCurry didn't even learn her name and ended up imaginatively titling the photo "The Afghan Girl" as you might have guessed. While her picture helped to sell subscriptions of National Geographic to your grandfather, Gula was busy living in poverty and poor health. Oh, and she has to live in the mountains for much of the year now because the pollution in the city, where her husband earns a dollar a day, is too much for her asthma.

Same pictures of Gula but the one at right was taken 17 years after

So we really can't blame her for not getting too excited about a photo that's done nothing to improve her existence. She still agreed to sit for a second photo by McCurry, though -- the second one in her entire life. She had to lower her veil for it, obviously, which is massively frowned upon in her culture, but she did it anyway because she was told there was a chance it could inspire others to help the people of Afghanistan.

Cracked.com

the face that remained unknown to millions for 17 years

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011