Steve McCurry uses a 105mm f/2.5 lens on a Nikon FM2 with Kodachrome 64 slide film for his Iconic picture of the girl from Afghanistan. He now shoots with a 28-70mm zoom lens, and a Nikon D700 DSLR and a Hasselblad medium format camera. He uses/used the lenses because he takes many close up portrait photos.
Steve McCurrys influence was Henri Cartier Bresson.
Steve's near death experience "Flying low over Lake Bled, on assignment in Slovenia in February 1989, the pilot took the plane dangerously close to the water’s surface. The wheels caught and we went down, the propeller shattering as we hit the water. The plane flipped, and the fuselage began to sink in the icy lake. My seat belt was stuck, but an instinct for self-preservation kicked in and I was able to wrestle free. The pilot and I swam under the aircraft to the surface. My camera and bag are still 65 feet down.”
I don't like that some of his work is a little gross looking but I understand why its that way because many of the people he photographs are in third world countries.