For more than half the world's people, the weather can be a matter of survival. Good monsoons mean prosperity and life, and poor ones are attended by famine and death. The monsoon is immune to control by government and technology alike. Photojournalist Steve McCurry had just completed a working tour of India when he was commissioned by the "National Geographic" to cover the monsoon season. For a further six months he followed the path of the monsoon from the tropics to the eastern hemisphere, through Southeast Asia to Northern Australia. The resulting photographs are presented in this volume, with McCurry's personal account of the assignment.