Taj Mahal and Train

Taj Mahal and Train is among the most widely reproduced images of Steve McCurry’s early work in India. Made in Agra in 1983, the photograph places a steam locomotive in the immediate foreground while the domes of the Taj Mahal rise through the morning haze behind it, softened almost to the point of dissolution.

Two railway workers occupy the front of the engine — one standing, hand raised to the boiler, wearing a red turban; the other seated below him, turned in profile. Steam drifts across the lower half of the frame, connecting the two planes of the composition.

Two Indias in One Frame

The photograph’s power rests on a juxtaposition McCurry found rather than arranged. The Taj Mahal, built in the seventeenth century as a mausoleum, is the most photographed monument in the country; the steam locomotive belongs to a working railway network then still in daily service.

By pushing the monument into the background and giving the foreground to the machine and the men operating it, McCurry inverts the usual hierarchy. The result is an image about labour and continuity rather than about architecture.

Colour and Atmosphere

The palette is restricted and warm: the rust and black of the engine, the ochre of the workers’ clothing, the pale grey-white of the marble and the steam. The single note of red in the turban functions as the compositional key, drawing the eye to the human figure at the centre of an overwhelmingly mechanical foreground.

The atmospheric haze of an Agra morning does much of the work, flattening depth and giving the monument the quality of an apparition.

Provenance & Documentation

Hand-signed by the artist. Reference: India 10203, 27/90, 09/15/2022.

Provenance: Private Collection Certificate: Signed by the artist