Agustina Villanueva

Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry (1985)

Abstract
The aim of this essay is to analyze the photograph taken by Steve McCurry in 1984,
called The Afghan Girl. I base my analysis on Martins definition of Multimodality as
moving beyond linguistics into social semiotics and taking into account as many
modalities of communication as we can systematically describe (Martin and Rose,
2007, p. 321).
The multimodal analysis is divided into three levels; ideational analysis, interpersonal
analysis and textual analysis. The fourth level of analysis classified by Martin and Rose
is not taken into consideration in this specific analysis because there is no text-image
relation. I conclude the analysis with my personal comments and reflections.
It is important to clarify that this picture was taken in 1984 but the identity of this girl
was known seventeen years later, after many years of investigations and inconclusive
searches. Her name is Sharbat Gula and her story was told by National Geographic, the
entity that introduced her anonymously to the world.

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

1. Introduction

Undoubtedly, Steve McCurrys photograph is one of the most famous pictures in the
world. The Afghan Girl became the cover of National Geographic in June 1985. By
then, she was an unknown refugee girl who seemed to have nothing in the world but a
red burnt burka. And a mesmerizing glance.
According to the biography presented in his own website, Steve McCurry has been one
of the most iconic voices in contemporary photography for more than thirty years. The
photographer decided to make a drastic change in his life and in the late 1970s he
crossed illegally into Afghanistan. He was shocked by the situation in which Afghan
people were being bombarded and attacked by their own government. As soon as I
crossed the border, I came across about 40 houses and a few schools that were just
bombed out, he says during an interview with Jake Willis Simons, a CNN reporter.
They were literally destroying whole villages with helicopter gunships. This was a
profound situation that really needed to be told, and few people could get access to it
because it was too remote (Willis Simons, 2015)
In 1984, as a consequence of the Cold War, Afghanistan was embracing a terribly
bloody war with the Soviet Union. That caused that millions of refuges were fleeing to
Pakistan to save their lives. Steve McCurry was one of the photographers who took the
risk and went there to record every aspect of it. For a period of time, he decided to stay
in the Afghanistan Pakistan border to cover the refugees crisis. In the interview, he
states that he was afraid to be killed at every moment, whether by a gunshot, a bomb or
a knife. But I have found that I get completely consumed by the importance of the
story I am telling, the feeling that the world has got to know. It's never about the
adrenaline. It's about the story (Willis Simons, 2015).
The situation of Afghan refugees was cruel and inhuman. They lived in terrible
conditions surrounded by sorrow and disease. But among that life, and the hundreds of
tents, McCurry found one which filled the air with laughs and joy. In an interview with
Daniel Hajek (2015), the photographer revealed that the tent was actually a makeshift
classroom for an all-girls school. And inside it, he discovered the piercing glance. He
met The Afghan Girl.
2

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

2. Multimodal Discourse Analysis

2.1 Ideational meaning analysis
Regarding Martin and Roses classification, this photograph is an entity-focused
classifying image. In nuclear terms, there is just one person; a brunette girl with a red
burnt burka above green clothes. However, the center and nucleus of the photograph is
her beautiful look. Her greenish eyes captivated the world.
Beyond the analysis of the phenomenon focus, the meaning could be also illustrated as
indexical, in Martin and Roses taxonomy terms. There is something more behind that
girl. It is not an ordinary look; she seems to be talking with her eyes. She communicates
something to the camera. The fear in her eyes as well as the courage can be perceived in
the big, wide opened eyes. By that time, people could not know her identity but people
could at least know a tiny part of her suffering through that impacting glance.
Also, I personally believe that it is possible to recognize a symbol in that girl. By the
time The National Geographic cover was spread throughout the world, people were able
to know the suffering and fear lived by the Afghan refugees in that border. In an
interview with CNN, McCurry said that after the picture was published people
empathized with the cause. It drew attention to their plight, and inspired a lot of
people (Wallis Simons, 2015). She became a symbol of survival and courage. It also
caught my attention that she became a symbol through her eyes, which are a symbol by
themselves. As William Shakespeare said, the eyes are the windows of the soul. And the
soul of the Afghan girl had been au naturel by her piercing glance.
2.2 Interpersonal meaning analysis
Regarding interpersonal meaning, it is necessary to analyze the three types of appraisal.
The picture itself inscribes certain feelings but their meanings depend on the viewers
decision. The piercing glance of the girl is defined by the reflexive look of the viewer.
When the photograph was taken, nobody could exactly know what her feelings were
because McCurry didnt talk to her, just asked for the photo. The enigma was resolved
seventeen years later. The world could actually know her feelings. She said she was
very angry at that moment because girls and women could not make contact with mens
eyes. In the interview with Hajek (2015), McCurry said At first, this young girl she put
3

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

her hands [up to] cover her face. Her teacher asked her to put her hands down so the
world would see her face and know her story. So she basically dropped her hands and
just looked into my lens, McCurry says. It was this piercing gaze. A very beautiful
little girl with this incredible look1.
In an article written by Cathy Newman (2002) for National Geographic, it is said that
the girl, now a woman, remembered that moment. The photographer took her picture.
She remembers her anger. The man was a stranger. She had never been photographed
before (Newman, 2002). It is possible to inscribe that anger from her powerful glance.
Not only did the stranger make her feel anger, but also fear. She was an orphan living in
a refugee camp tent. The combination of both feelings are reflected in her look. What is
more, after Steve McCurry met her for the second time, her brother revealed she was
from one of the fiercest tribes in Afghanistan. Names have power, so let us speak of
hers. Her name is Sharbat Gula, and she is Pashtun, that most warlike of Afghan tribes.
It is said of the Pashtun that they are only at peace when they are at war, and her eyes
then and nowburn with ferocity (Newman, 2002).
On the other hand, invoked feelings from this photograph are quite blended. My
personal reaction to the image has always been the same: admiration for the strength she
transmits and empathy for that young child. I think no one could ever be indifferent to
this picture. She is saying powerful things with no words. I can perceive her fear, her
anger, her hostility, her strength, her constant wariness. But despite all that, I can also
perceive her courage and endurance.
That is why I have surrendered with admiration by her life portrayed in a camera film.
She said nothing but expressed everything through a different mode than the written
one. No words were necessary to know what she was saying. As it was previously
mentioned, McCurry said there were many people who volunteered to aid the refugees
because they were mesmerized by the afghan girl. It is possible to define The Afghan
Girl as a symbol of the evil, immoral and inhuman atrocities the Muslims refugees had
to live because of war in 1985. The world condemned it and was moved and touched by
her. She judges us, the viewers, and claims for life.

1 See Appendix I
4

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

Evidently, the impact of the glance is what penetrates your soul, but the use of the
colors, the delimitation and position of her defiance face make it even more beautiful.
That color contrast could be considered as part of the amplification made by McCurry.
But the graduation of the picture itself has been highly amplified by the direct
penetrating look of the refugee child.
2.3 Textual meaning analysis
As Martin and Rose (2007) quote in their work, Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)
suggested two forms of textual organization for images polarized and centered (p. 326).
In the first case, they proposed an analysis based on the organization of the picture on
two axes. The horizontal one proposes the given information (left side) in contrasts with
the new information (right side). This analysis is for horizontal pictures. In this case, the
one being analyzed is the vertically positioned image. The authors proposed a vertical
axe to organize the picture: above is located what they called the ideal, an abstract
category, and at the bottom of the picture is the real, the more concrete and specific
situation.
The picture taken by McCurry is a portrait and you can see nothing more than the girl.
However, I believe that it is possible to analyze it using Kress and van Leeuwen
concepts. The real world this girl was suffering could be represented not just by the
look, but also by the red, burnt burka. In my opinion, the burka itself is something
oppressing. Women are not able to show themselves as they truly are to the world. That
is something coercive and oppressing. And that was the reality she was living in.
She was not only oppressed by religion and culture, but also by a war that was not hers.
She was suffering the consequences of a few. Then the world knew that she had been
living in that camp for many years, because her parents had been killed and she had
nothing but her force and courage.
If the viewer looks deeply and amplifies the image, it is possible to see the reflection of
the landscape outside the tent in her eyes. The ideal world of freedom could be
represented in those two windows. But at the same time, she is telling us by the
mesmerizing glace, that the ideal world should be the opposite to the one she was living
in. In her eyes, both the ideal and the real are represented.

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

As it was previously mentioned, the portrait is vertically positioned and the center of it
is the face of the girl. More exactly, the center of the piece are her eyes, which are the
most salient elements of the image. Salience is defined by Martin and Rose (2007) as a
relative further textual dimension (p. 327). It draws the readers attention to one
element before another (Martin and Rose, 2007, p. 329). That salient element is the
piercing glance.
The photograph itself is superb. McCurry seems to have played with the colors he
chose. But as he said, everything was there to just click and take the picture. The red
burka contrasts with the green background, which is from the same greenish color palate
of the girls eyes. Her dark, dirty and hardened leathered skin amplifies the red that
surrounds her face. The curved lines of her hair and her face delimitated by the burka,
frame the piercing look. These factors could be considered part of the mentioned salient
dimension of the portrait.
Taking into consideration Martins multimodal discourse analysis taxonomy, the fourth
feature is not under evaluation because there is no text accompanying the image.
However, I certainly believe that there is no need for words. As it was previously
mentioned, the penetrating glance is saying everything. It could be considered the
existence of an interaction between verbiage and image; multimodal discourse analysis
is creating this new meaning. This particular girl seems to be talking to you when you
look at her. She is clearly saying something to you with her mesmerized stare.

3. Final reflections
There is no doubt that this is one of the most famous and beautiful pictures that have
ever been taken. The innocence and youth are defeated by the real, hard and inhuman
life Sharbat Gula was suffering. Her untrusting, furious and defiant glance are a symbol
of refugees life. But not any refugee; a refugee who is so angry that she does not care to
look at an American stranger and almost shoot him with just a glance.
She is a symbol of the refugees resilience. She had lost everything but she continued
struggling not with real bullets, but with a look that could have shot bullets in
McCurrys lens. Her deep look represents the struggle of her people and every refugee
of war, which sadly are so common to see in the News nowadays.
6

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

Refugees are degraded by war as humans because the war deprives them of their dignity
as human beings. That evil deprivation is reflected in her eyes. In the focal point of the
image is represented the fear, indignity and inhuman but resilient life of The Afghan
Girl.

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

REFERENCES

Cathy Newman (2002) A life revealed, retrieved from

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2002/04/afghan-girl-revealed/
Daniel Hajek (2015) How one photographer captured a piercing gaze that shook the
word, retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2015/07/26/425659961/how-onephotographer-captured-a-piercing-gaze-that-shook-the-world
Jake Wallis Simons (2015) The story behind the worlds most famous photograph,
retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/23/world/steve-mccurry-afghan-girlphoto/
J. R. Martin and David Rose (2007) Working with discourse, Chapter 9, Bloomsbury
Academic, New York.
Steve McCurry Bio, retrieved from http://stevemccurry.com/bio

Agustina Villanueva
Universidad de Montevideo

Discourse Analysis II
Assignment IV

APPENDIX I

First picture taken to The Afghan Girl in 1985, by Steve McCurry,

Picture taken to Sharbat Gula in 2002, by Steve McCurry.