Recently interviewed on National Public Radio's "My Big Break" series, Steve McCurry stated that the moment he captured this image changed his life. As McCurry explains in the interview, "Occasionally in life and occasionally in my photography, the stars align and everything comes together in a miraculous way." This iconic image, made famous as the cover of National Geographic's June 1985 issue, captures a young Afghan refugee living in Peshawar, Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Known simply as "Afghan Girl" until she was identified by name in 2002, Sharbat Gula was 12 years old when Steve McCurry photographed her in the refugee camp.

In the past McCurry made smaller Cibachrome prints (also known by the generic term dye destruction) of the Afghan girl, but for the past several years all of his fine art prints starting at 24 x 20 inches and up, have been made as Archival digital c-prints on Fuji Crystal paper for better archiving and richer colors. Cibachrome and dye transfer prints are no longer made due to the unavailability of the chemicals and dyes. McCurry stopped producing prints of Afghan Girl in 2009.