In 1985 National Geographic magazine ran on its cover a photograph taken by American Steve McCurry.

It's now one of the best-known colour photographs taken in the 20th century and one of the most simple.

McCurry's subject was a portrait of a green-eyed Afghan girl called Sharbat Gula, who was living in a refugee camp in Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of her country.

"To get a 12-year-old to sit for a couple of minutes, that's a long time, " McCurry said in an interview, "especially when they don't have a clue who you are or what you're up to. She didn't understand journalism or photography or magazines. She didn't speak English and I didn't speak Pushtu. So she just sat there, and when she decided to get up and take off, she was gone."

McCurry has said it's the unposed nature of his photograph that appeals to people. "I don't think I could have predicted her popularity. But it's clear that it's an uncoached, unmanipulated thing. She's a young, very pretty little girl with this very intense, beautiful set of eyes, but there's also this troubled haunted quality to her look. You don't have to look for a long time to work out what's going on for her."

What's significant for New Zealanders is that from Saturday that very photograph will be on show here for the first time, along with 49 others that have appeared in the 120-year-old National Geographic magazine.

It will also be the first time National Geographic has brought an exhibition to New Zealand. But instead of it being held at Te Papa or Auckland Museum, it will be at the gallery in Upper Hutt's Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre.

"If you ask yourself 'what is it about that photograph that makes it so iconic?' It's just such a mixture of components. It's not just the colour and the composure and everything. It's her personality that comes through – and those haunting eyes," says Expressions director Leanne Wickham about McCurry's photograph.

But there are also others in the exhibition that are equally haunting and memorable. It includes Thomas Abercrombie 1965 shot of Mecca, to oilfields burning during the 1991 invasion of Kuwait and, which Wickham says she finds especially powerful, a photograph of Russian children with birth defects caused by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster.

Another iconic image is one by Nick Nichols of Jane Goodall. The shot shows a chimpanzee, which Goodall had never seen before, stretching out its arm to touch her. Equally mesmerising is Joanna B Pinneo's photograph taken in Sub-Saharan Mali of sand from a dry lake bed clinging to an eight-month-old girl as she sleeps with her mother and other children.

So how did Expressions land such a significant exhibition ahead of a heavyweight museum or gallery in one of the main centres. Wickham says she's been a fan of National Geographic since she was a child, when she had her first dream of what she would do as an adult.

"I wanted to be one of those archaeologists who go out and dig artefacts in Egypt and write up my story for the National Geographic. My nana and my poppa had this amazing collection of National Geographic magazines up their stairwell in Tauranga. I used to go there and sit on the stairs and read these National Geographics, which was just fabulous."

Fast forward to running Expressions and Wickham and others were looking at what kinds of shows and exhibitions for the Upper Hutt City Council-funded centre which would appeal to a broad audience. "Sometimes we do push the envelope, but being a suburban art gallery we want to show exhibitions people can relate to. When we did a list of what [those exhibitions] might be National Geographic popped up."

When Wickham went online she found that not was the Washington DC-based National Geographic Society busy with its magazine, television channel and other projects, but it had a series of touring exhibitions. One was titled the 50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic.

"We just started a relationship and how did we get it? I think it was just having the tenacity to ask."

Expressions also teamed up with Palmerston North's Te Manawa Gallery, which will exhibit the show once it finishes at Expressions in July.

Wickham says an important part of the exhibition is that it gives some insight into how each photograph was taken. Visitors have the option of downloading an iPad app, which they can play while at the exhibition. It will show a short behind the scenes film about each photograph. Expressions will also have some iPads for visitors to use.

Some photographs will also feature what are known as "near frames", these are other photographs taken before and after the one that the photographer chose. "There's that magic one shot and they explain why that one was the perfect one."

Wickham is also aware of the spinoff story of McCurry's famous photograph. Gula had no idea that she had become famous. In 2004 he tracked Gula down in Afghanistan. She was married with three daughters. "She didn't know about the picture," he said in a 2006 interview. "but I think it was very satisfying for her to know that she represented Afghan refugees and Afghanistan in a dignified, respectful way."

50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic is at Expressions Whirinaki Arts and Entertainment Centre, Upper Hutt, May 23-July 26 and Te Manawa, Palmerston North, August 8-November 1.