The Shaolin monks of China are known for their incredible acrobatics. This photographer captured them in action

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A young Shaolin monk runs horizontally up a wall, intense concentration and perhaps a hint of astonishment visible on his face. Four other trainees from a martial arts academy near Shaolin Temple in China’s Henan province lounge nonchalantly, seemingly oblivious to the gravity-defying action unfolding above their heads. Their bright orange dresses and Feiyue sneakers contrast with the dirt wall behind them.

The blurred back of a man on the left side of the image highlights the sharp movement at its center. A stretching monk in the background demonstrates his dexterity in a split-type position.

“There’s this high-level action,” photographer Steve McCurry the composition of the photo told CNN during a video call from his home in Philadelphia. “And these other boys are just hanging around.”

The image is featured in Magnum’s Square Print sale, which ends May 5, alongside works by other photographers. He filmed it in 2004, as a personal project, while he was traveling the world documenting various forms of Buddhism. Although he does not consider himself a Buddhist, McCurry has long been interested in the religion and applies some of its principles to his own life.

The Shaolin Temple, founded in 495 AD on the slopes of the sacred Mount Song, is considered the birthplace of Chan Buddhism. Although the religion emphasizes nonviolence, the temple’s warrior monks initially practiced martial arts to defend themselves against bandits. Over time, their rigorous physical training became inexorably linked to their quest for enlightenment.

Today, Shaolin kung fu is widely known, and the monks’ sporting exploits have been imitated in popular films. The 1982 film “The Shaolin Temple,” which launched Jet Li’s career and was filmed on location, was one of the films that sparked renewed interest in the monastery. By the time of McCurry’s visit in 2004, dozens of martial arts schools had sprung up on the road to the temple.

“It’s amazing to watch them play and practice,” he said. “You can’t imagine people can actually do this with their bodies.”

A career on the road

McCurry began his career working at a local newspaper after graduating from Pennsylvania State University. He then began traveling abroad as a freelance photographer, taking photos of people in some of the most dangerous and remote places in the world.

His career really took off after he crossed the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan illegally in 1979, just before the Soviet invasion. He smuggled out films by hiding them in his clothes, providing the world with some of the first photos of the conflict that left at least 500,000 Afghans dead and millions displaced.

His 1984 photograph, “Afghan Girl,” which captures the piercing green eyes of a 12-year-old refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan and was featured on the June 1985 cover of National Geographic magazine, is one of the most famous in the world.

During his 50-year career, McCurry, now 74, filled more than 20 passports, photographing animals and festivals, worshipers and fighters, conflicts and disasters in destinations ranging from Niger to India. It captures the ancient versus the modern, the everyday curious, and accentuates the familiarity of strangers.

In 2016, McCurry came under fire when it was discovered that one of his photos on display in an exhibition had been digitally altered. He said it happened in his studio while he was traveling, but more images appearing to have been manipulated began to surface, sparking a debate over the ethics of photojournalism.

In response to the allegations, the photographer told Time magazine later that year that beyond his brief stint at the local Pennsylvania newspaper, he had never been employed by a newspaper, news magazine or a media. As a freelancer, he had taken on various missions, including advertising campaigns. He said his work had “migrated into the fine art realm” and that he considered himself a “visual storyteller.”

He added that he understood that it might be “confusing…for people who think I’m still a photojournalist”, and that in the future he would only use Photoshop “minimally, even for my own work made during personal trips.

“I go back again and again”

Before taking the photo of the monk running on the walls, McCurry had already visited the Shaolin Temple two decades earlier. He says it was “really empty” on that first trip and that he only saw “bikes and people in Mao costumes.”

Upon his return, a craze for kung fu had gripped the nation. The neighborhood seemed more commercial, he remembers. Tens of thousands of (mostly) Chinese boys and men were inspired by a wave of kung fu films and were training at dozens of schools across the region.

The photographer obtained permission at one of the academies and spent a few days with the monks as they went about their daily routine, which included repeatedly practicing acrobatics. Some of the boys ate with McCurry at a noodle restaurant across the street, sharing their hopes of one day landing jobs in security, performing troupes, and the entertainment industry . “They were normal kids,” he said. “But they were very, very dedicated and serious about this practice.”

He captured further photographs of the monks’ intense training regimes during his stay, including several hanging upside down by their feet, their hands calmly pressed in a prayer pose.

McCurry sought to find the right combination of variables such as subject, angle, light and background as the monks perfected their movements. “It’s about photographing and coming back to it again and again.”

His perseverance paid off. “It’s an image that evokes a lot of emotion,” he said of the final photo of the monk running on the walls. “It either makes people smile or they’re sort of impressed by the looks of these young boys. »

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