Is a Youtuber defaming Steve McCurry and his Afghan Girl photo?

This was quite a week for one of the biggest photography Youtube channels (currently over 1.2 million subscribers), who decided to comment on the iconic photo of the Afghan Girl by world-renowned photographer Steve McCurry.

The problem with his video that went by the title "The disturbing true story of the Afghan Girl" was that he portrayed McCurry in a very negative light, implying that McCurry victimized the girl by taking the photo of her, as well as alleging that "he was profiting from the photo, while she made no money at all", and that "it was not journalism, because he took the photo only based on her looks". The fact that McCurry is male and and the "Afghan Girl" (real name Sharbat Gula) is a female was also often mentioned in a very suggestive context. He made McCurry sound really bad based on what turned out to be incomplete information (claiming she was wearing a burka, or being alone in the room for example). The whole video is conjecture, and in my opinion a very bad misrepresentation of Steve McCurry (here is his account on how he took that famous photo). The Youtuber was also using the video to promote one of his long time sponsors, and claimed that the money that would be generated through his "true story" video would be donated to a charity in Afghanistan.

The video quickly triggered a lot of backlash on various photography forums, and very soon other Youtubers started to make response videos and began defending Steve McCurry, and pointing out factual errors, and the flawed narrative by that big Youtuber. It seems that McCurry found out about it, too, and has stated in one of his Instagram comments "that he is working with his lawyer on this". A short time later the original video disappeared from the Youtuber's channel, it seems that he pulled it (however someone re-uploaded it, you can watch it in its entirety here). I don't know what is currently going on between that big Youtuber and Steve McCurry, I will update, when there are some further developments.

Here's an excerpt from the last part of the video, a quote:

Her photo could have been journalism, if it had been accompanied by her name and her story, but the photo was taken only for her looks. It did not represent her real scenario, it did not represent the way she really dressed or acted, it was taken completely out of context, it was actually misleading. Curry just found a model, that he could use for free, didn't even matter that she was unwilling, because she was a kid and she could be bossed around. After the photo was published the photo itself became news and Steve McCurry has been interviewed about it over and over again and Steve still doesn't seem to be telling the true story, at least Steve's story doesn't seem to sync with Sharbat's.

I'm not even shocked anymore to see this, after I wrote about all the shady methods popular photography Youtubers use these days to generate clicks and views.

UPDATE: The Youtuber made another video explaining himself, as well as re-published the original video. You can watch both of them here (and also read about community reactions).

Initial reactions from the online community:

• DP Review discussion>>
• FStoppers reaction>>
• Reddit thread>>