Photograph of vulture and child, by Kevin Carter

 A vulture watches a starving child in Southern Sudan, March 1, 1993. Photograph by Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter started his career as a photographer in 1983, soon taking a great interest in moving his mission to the South African political chaos and violence. [3] In 1994, the above photograph by Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.  While photographing in Sudan near a small village, Carter stumbled upon an extremely malnourished child limping to a nearby food station. As she stopped to rest, exhausted, a vulture landed close distance near her to watch.  As Carter quoted himself,  “It may be difficult for people to understand, but as a photojournalist my frist instinct was to make the photograph. As soon as that was done and the child moved on, I felt completely devastated. “ [1]

In March of 1993, The New York Times published the photograph. Immediately afterwards, Carter was met with harsh criticism and shocked reactions. Though it was confirmed that the child did make it to the food station, it was not clear what had happened to her next.  Carter was criticized as a “predator” and a “vulture” himself, for wanting to take just the right shot of the little girl’s suffering.  The St. Petersburg Times reported that Carter “might as well just be a predator, another vulture on the scene”, [2] implying that he could have helped the girl and not solely just documenting the scene.

What many did not know at the time of the photograph was that during this period, photojournalists were forbidden to touch or assist victims of famine in order to prevent the spreading of disease.  What is also interesting is that amount of blame that was placed on the photographer himself here, and not the fact that this kind of suffering was happening not just to this young child but in the entire country.

Ultimately, Carter’s time photographing the suffering of people (including photographs of violence, public executions, and wide-spread devastation to the African region) was finally too much for him to handle. Following  the death of a close friend and photojournalist  Ken Oosterbroek who was also working to document the violence of Apartheid,  the trauma over the horrific scenes he witnessed and ultimately having it affect his friend, he committed suicide on July 27^th, 1994 by carbon monoxide poisoning.  This was soon after winning his Pulitzer Prize. Details from his suicide note read “I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life over rides the joy to the point that joy does not exist… depressed… without phone… money for rent… money for child support…money for debts…money! I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain… of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners… I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.” [4] Carter and these other photographers were wiling to risk injury or death to get the compelling photograph, because of their great sense of mission and the ability for photographs to increase public awareness and international action.  For Carter, the emotional impact of what he witnessed was too much to handle.

People were so quick to label him a vulture, but no one took into account the degree of suffering in Sudan.  On my own thoughts on the photo: I think what makes this unique from other photos taken of portraits of the victims themselves is that a looming, threatening presence is there, in front of the camera lens, waiting. The vulture knows nothing of war, or famine, or the suffering of others; to it the small child could just as easily be a dying fox, dog, or bird.  A very obvious and understandable reaction when first seeing the photo is “What happened to the child?”, followed by “Could someone have stopped this?”. In this case, the photographer ends up being the one to point blame at; for the photograph triggers such a feeling of helplessness in people that perhaps in a way, channeling the anger towards Kevin Carter was easier than trying to understand the troubling circumstances not as obviously pictured.

[1} Quote from Kevin Carter in The Death of Kevin Carter, a documentary film by Dan Krauss, excerpted from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241442

[2] The Life and Death of Kevin Carter: “Visiting Sudan, a little-known photographer took a picture that made the world weep. What happened afterward is a tragedy of another sort” excerpted from http://www.thisisyesterday.com/ints/KCarter.html

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/29/world/kevin-carter-a-pulitzer-winner-for-sudan-photo-is-dead-at-33.html

[4] Kevin Carter: The Consequences of Photojournalism http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/photography/articles/2845/title/kevin-carter-consequences-photojournalism