Kevin Carter was part of a tightly knit band of South African photojournalists known as "The Bang Bang Club" - four friends who found their calling in the war-ravaged black townships as apartheid was coming to a violent close. Yet his most evocative image came not from South Africa, but from southern Sudan, where he traveled to photograph the mass starvation caused by a devastating civil war in 1993. In the dreadful desert plains, Carter happened upon a horrifying sight: a starving girl being stalked by a vulture. The photograph won a Pulitzer Prize, but Carter was tormented by both the praise and the criticism it inspired, committing suicide a few weeks after receiving the award. The photo became instantly famous after it appeared on the front page of the New York Times, while Carter himself became notorious. He embodied a classic dilemma facing journalists: whether to be witness to, or savior of, the subjects they depict. Many critics asked why Carter didn't "take off his photographer's hat" and rescue the child from a dangerous situation". Haunted by all that he had seen - as well as the decisions he made both as a photojournalist and a human being,his mind was contaminated with guilt.The life of Carter inspired Manic Street Preachers to write "Kevin Carter" for their 1996 classic album "Everything Must Go". The album would be the first without lyricist/guitarist Richey James Edwards, who disappeared the previous year. Following the release of the photo to the world wide media, Carter stated that he managed to scare off the waiting vulture, but he didn't know the outcome of the starving girl's desperate effort to crawl to a nearby feeding station, and ultimately it was this fact that would haunt him for the rest of his life.It's difficult to put oneself in his dilemma, but photo journalists are apparently always told to be intrinsically detached from the events that they are recording, and he ultimately paid the price.I always wonder what happened to the little girl."Images contaminate us like Viruses" - Paul Virilio
Anna says
I had no idea. Thank you for this post, Jammy. Lots of food for thought here.
"photo journalists are apparently always told to be intrinsically detached from the events that they are recording" I do understand that, but it all comes down to who you wanna be at the end of the day; a by- the- book professional photo journalist, or a professional photo journalist and an amateur humanitarian one. Is there any point in documenting human pain to show it to the world and therefore awaken it, if, given the chance, you do nothing to eliminate it yourself?
On the other hand, who are we to point fingers? He is no more guilty than any of us who sit at our comfy couches and whistle to the tune of apathy, while people are dying all over the planet. Did he reserve so much criticism just because of his proximity to the girl? Proximity isn't always a good thing; I would expect people that are at a safe distance which makes us more mentally sober to act as human beings are expected to act.
Thanks again.
Jammy Jeff says
Anna - Brilliantly put, you've highlighted much the same thoughts that go through my mind on this tragic story, particularly "who are we to point the finger ?".
My mind always goes back to that little girl, and in addition, would Carter still be alive today if he had saved the girl ?
Thanks A
Augusts1 says
Wow, what a powerful story, photo & song. Not sure that I could walk away from a scene like that & not feel the same as Kevin. Sad that he felt compelled to end his life after being given an award for that intense pic. I'm sure he did what he could but then again we don't know the entire story going on _around_ that pic. It could be that since the country was at civil war Kevin could've been highly endangering himself if he did anything more than scare off the vulture(ie, military control around that scene). So, to echo Anna's statement 'who are we to point fingers?' is quite apt.
Thanks for sharing this.
Cinful says
That is so mind-warping! I'm sure that there were alot more adults, children and infants in the same spot that child was in as it stated "the mass starvation caused by a devastating civil war in 1993." ... one person cannot save an entire area and I'm very sorry that there weren't more friends and loved ones there to help him understand that he, alone, couldn't be expected to save all of them. Was he expected to save that one child, but leave any others he was to come across behind? He happened to take the one picture of the one child ... how many other adults, children and infants had he and other photographers seen? How many were helped/saved? We will never know ... but, I'll be the last to throw a stone at him and I'm sorry he left this world with a such a huge cloud over his head.
Kate says
I wonder if Kevin Carter was acquainted with Dan Eldon, another young photojournalist who died tragically in '93. Eldon left behind vivid collaged journals which diminished in their artistic vibrancy as he got deeper into photojournalism, so that by the end, all that was left were his photos. Carter and Eldon's photos speak so loudly about the human capacity for love and cruelty, I can't help but think about what they would have accomplished had they not passed away so young.
Girlcrawl says
Exceptionally poignant post. I remember this event, and the controversial tragedy that ensued. Kevin Carter was, and remains a brilliant photo journalist. Anna poses an excellent point, and I would venture to say that the horrific atrocities and 'landscape' Kevin found himself witnessing day after day was unimaginable to most 'civilised' persons. His suicide did not abate or atone, and did not change whatever the child's fate that day may have been. Have always felt that even had he 'intervened' she would not have survived given the extreme starvation she had already suffered - he would have essentially, and probably only temporarily staved off her inevitable death.
Having spent a large amount of my childhood in South Africa, I can attest to the fact that given Africa's historical tumult, the tremendous present-day corruption and brutal political and militaristic climate, unending civil unrest, savage violence and intentional genocides, unrestrained birth rates, HIV/AIDS epidemic, famines, etc., Africa is unlike any other continent. It is highly unjust and hypocritical to hold persons not familiar with such chaos to an ethical, humanitarian standard or reasoned morality when they are immersed in an environment nearly devoid of such institutionalised, coherent social codes.
Alex P Morrisson says
I remember reading this in the london times something like photos that changed the world. then i went to listen to the song cause i had a feeling my brother had it somewhere...
i kept reading the article over and over again, it had this sentence that really made sense, something like 'with all the suffering that he could see, it seemed his fate was sealed' something along those lines.
It was 15years ago...
Kevin Carter was part of a tightly knit band of South African photojournalists known as "The Bang Bang Club" - four friends who found their calling in the war-ravaged black townships as apartheid was coming to a violent close. Yet his most evocative image came not from South Africa, but from southern Sudan, where he traveled to photograph the mass starvation caused by a devastating civil war in 1993. In the dreadful desert plains, Carter happened upon a horrifying sight: a starving girl being stalked by a vulture. 
The photograph won a Pulitzer Prize, but Carter was tormented by both the praise and the criticism it inspired, committing suicide a few weeks after receiving the award. The photo became instantly famous after it appeared on the front page of the New York Times, while Carter himself became notorious. He embodied a classic dilemma facing journalists: whether to be witness to, or savior of, the subjects they depict. Many critics asked why Carter didn't "take off his photographer's hat" and rescue the child from a dangerous situation". Haunted by all that he had seen - as well as the decisions he made both as a photojournalist and a human being,his mind was contaminated with guilt.
The life of Carter inspired Manic Street Preachers to write "Kevin Carter" for their 1996 classic album "Everything Must Go". The album would be the first without lyricist/guitarist Richey James Edwards, who disappeared the previous year. Following the release of the photo to the world wide media, Carter stated that he managed to scare off the waiting vulture, but he didn't know the outcome of the starving girl's desperate effort to crawl to a nearby feeding station, and ultimately it was this fact that would haunt him for the rest of his life.It's difficult to put oneself in his dilemma, but photo journalists are apparently always told to be intrinsically detached from the events that they are recording, and he ultimately paid the price.I always wonder what happened to the little girl."Images contaminate us like Viruses" - Paul Virilio
Locating MOG account...
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