Valentino Spring 2016 Campaign shot in Amboseli National Park in Kenya.

Steve McCurry is not a fashion photographer at all, but the brilliant chronicler of far-flung cultures whose work became famous on the pages of National Geographic. His most iconic photograph: “Afghan Girl,” the magazine’s June 1985 cover. She mesmerized the world.

For his part, McCurry focused on telling the story at hand. “Photography is always about finding the best solution to a puzzle and creating some wonderful feeling or scenario, making a great story,” he says. “The idea of these pictures is to take the viewer on a journey. The clothes were inspired by African motifs, [so] to take the shoot to Africa and show how these things interact and, this connection of the clothes, the models, the environment, the local people; I thought it was a great endeavor.”