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Photos that Changed the Worldphotosthatchangedtheworld.com or ptctw.com |
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| "Sometimes Breathtaking. Sometimes Horrific Each photo has the power to inspire." One new Photo added Everyweek! |
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Posted on July 13, 2008 - Total Views 143099
Starving Child Vulture
One photograph that has helped awaken the world about the effects of poverty in Africa is the one above showing a Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture nearby. It is quite obvious that the child was starving to death, while the vulture was patiently waiting for the toddler to die so he can have a good meal.
Nobody knows what happened to the child, who crawled his way to a United Nations food camp. Photographer Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this shocking picture, but he eventually committed suicide three months after he took the shot.
| Photographer : Year : More Info : |
Kevin Carte 1994 Wikipedia |
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(114 votes, average: 4.82 out of 5)
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August 25th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
my question is: why didnt anyone help the child at the time? it truly baffles me.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Why wouldn’t he have picked the kid up and carried him to the food camp?
August 25th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Taking the picture was more important than helping the child? WOW. Thats probably what shocked the world that no one helped.
August 25th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
It took the photographer 20 minutes to set the picture up. He committed suicide cause of the shame and scrunty he was under for not helpping sooner. Not that I can blame people, ask “why not help?” is a legitimate question.
August 25th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
For the bigger picture go here
http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/ultimate_in_unfair.htm
August 26th, 2008 at 6:14 am
Hi, i would just like to say this picture is part of my reason behind my choice to get in to humanitarian photography. I have studied kevin carter along with other photojournalists as part of a look at the risk and struggle of this kind of documentary. So i have read several accounts of this picture. The main one from, Joao Silva, a close friend and colleague of Carter. He’s account goes like this. They where bother there as part of a helicopter food drop. They had half an hour running around to get the shots they wanted. Carter was never more than 30ft from the helicopter while silva when of further. For Carter it was his first time with famine victims and so started shooting what he could. The child had been left momenterily while her parents went to get corn. And carter spent 10 minuets trying to get the right shot then scared the vulture away. He had also been advised not to touch any famine victims by the UN aid workers he had been working along side. He deserved the politzer and certainly did not deserve the criticism.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Thank you, Chris Barter, as this photo has long enough been in controversy, for what i believe is the closest explanation.
Something people must realize is that those who report the events of the world, no matter how sad, how heartbreaking, always have a dilemma… To report it as it is or to change it, thus becoming part of the history they illustrate and by their actions then rendering it inaccurate.
We see here a nanosecond in time, no account of what a man did or didn’t do and those who photograph war and other ***** put their lives on the line to allow us to see the truth.
And finally… somethings cannot be changed with one small act. The guy could have brought this child a happy meal and it would not have changed her situation. Starvation does not work that way.
i am often shamed by fellow human beings who condemn without any experience and he gave his life for the same kind of shame. Thank you for telling the truth as best as you know it.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am
i saw this photo in my pphoto class in high school and my teacher told me that the little boy died soon after this picture was taken and the local ppl told the potagrapher that he would of lived if he had gotten help just a few minutes earlier but he chose to take the picture instead of help him and i was told that the photagrapher felt guilty which is why he killed himself 3 months later cuz he took a life as well as that picture…
August 26th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Umm, learner? Did you not see the link above?
Your high school teacher was wrong and you haven’t done your homework either… think before you post.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
this picture probably motivated many people to try and help; so even if this photographer really did all that i read up..down…well here, then that sucks but one shouldnt just look at what happened when this picture but the effect of it being taken
August 26th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
the photographer didnt help the kid because he could’ve gotten diseased. it sounds cruel, i know, but there was reason..
August 26th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Yes, he should have helped the child. He knew this and committed suicide soon after, as you all know. There is no need to further berate the man online.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Photographers and other people in there area were specifically ORDERED by their superiors and the authorities NOT to touch famine victims. The risk of disease was too great, as was the politics involved in it. It’s kind of like the politics involved in the recent cyclone. People were dying, but we couldn’t just barge in, because the government said they wouldn’t allow it. Same with this picture. He couldn’t do anything, or rather, he was too scared of the consequences at the time to do anything. And for that regret, he killed himself.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Didn’t the photographer have a sandwich??
August 27th, 2008 at 2:04 am
To those who criticize the Photographer for not helping: What exactly are YOU doing? Are you putting your life in danger, spending weeks among some of the bitterest human landscapes on earth and devoting your money to these problems?
Finger pointing is a habit isn’t it?
August 27th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Taking that picture and opening the worlds eyes to the tragedy that goes on in the world did a lot more good than just giving that one child any help. Under the photographers circumstances he did what he could. He showed the world what was really going on. Helping that child to one facility, or to one meal would not have helped. It would have just starved later.
It’s sad to say that one life will save hundreds of others, but it’s true. That picture made people wake up and start helping.
August 27th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Lets say hypothetically the photog. gave the starving child a single meal instead of taking the photo. What more would he have accomplished than providing one meal to an individual in a continent of hungry people? I would put it to those who are criticising this mans actions that nothing would have been accomplished by such an action, rather a photo was taken that has stirred the hearts of millions and as such is far more likely to bring about significant change. If it wasn’t for the photographer taking this photo each and everyone of us would be more ignorant of such plights. I find it quite offensive that people would criticise an individual for trying to bring about awareness and significant changes - have some respect people.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:08 am
To be fair to the vulture he’s probably got a family to feed.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
First of all, they were told not to touch anyone because of disease. After he took the picture, he shooed away the vulture and sat down under a tree and cried. He couldn’t do anything about it; even if he had picked up the child, it would have been too late. The child was most likely so starved it wouldn’t even have been able to take food had it had any. Also, if he hadn’t taken the picture, then no one would have seen what he saw. They’d be ignorant to what’s really happening in the world.
People sent him such angry letters about this picture that he commited suicide three months later. So like Kelsey said, let’s not further berate him.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:43 am
To those criticizing. Did you eat a good meal today? Did you feel guilty because a child was dying of starvation somewhere in the world while you ate it? I thought not.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
The Times has a good writeup on the photographer’s life and death. Criticism of this photo was the least of his problems. http://is.gd/1YjC
August 27th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I still look at this photograph and weep. As Nathan pointed out above, it has stirred thousands, if not millions of hearts to take action. In fact, it was in part this photograph that woke that calling inside me to utilize my fluency of the Spanish language and to become a humanitarian in Honduras later on in life, a few years after Hurricane Mitch brought devastation to the area. As soon as I was of responsible age to live on my own in a foreign country for several months, I packed my bags and left. Granted, I see nothing as cruel and widespread as this, but I saw a need and did my best to fill it because of this photograph.
Thank you, Ben, as well, for that great article. It really gave insight into who this guy was and how witnessing this tragedy changed him.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Delial…?
August 28th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Omg, I really can’t believe how gullible and ignorant most of the comments here are. “Why he didn’t help”?Why don’t you help, you who condemn?There is still famine in Africa, there is no proper medicine care, no food, no education, no peace! 14 years have passed but nothing has changed, and most of you only keep repeating and whining why doesn’t he helped?!
First, to give a pack of sandwitches wouldn’t solve the food crisis.The phoptographer would have left the next day and the child was doomed to die of starving like millions others. What Kevin Garte did was to bring awareness to the comfortably sitting, blissfully unaware world of the tragic events in these poor countries! Unfortunately, it is still all the same and nothing has changed.
Something more, Kevn was told not to touch the children because most of them were ill (infectious diseases).
So please, before posting reprimands ,think a little bit and mainly do something and help if you are really so concerned!
August 28th, 2008 at 5:50 am
It Is Difficult To Be Witness. It Is Difficult to Share Disturbing Facts.
Unless you have lived a thing and stood before it, become bereft by it . There can be no means of conveying or imparting its universal significance to others.
It Is my opinion, such as it, that those who condemned the photograher were upset more by the burden of responsibility he dared place on the hearts and minds of us who profess to deplore those unrelenting conditions, we often feel are not our concerns.
However rightly or wrongly his intent, I can not besmirch him. For at the end of my day, in my meditations he is one of the heroes who did and does the difficult work, in difficult places.
August 28th, 2008 at 11:39 am
This is one of most sad picture I ever saw….
Ever…
August 28th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
# learner Says:
August 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am
i saw this photo in my pphoto class in high school and my teacher told me that the little boy died soon after this picture was taken and the local ppl told the potagrapher that he would of lived if he had gotten help just a few minutes earlier but he chose to take the picture instead of help him and i was told that the photagrapher felt guilty which is why he killed himself 3 months later cuz he took a life as well as that picture…
It’s called a period.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:29 am
If you want to know about this picture and the story behind it, read “The Bang Bang Club”. The book was written by Kevin’s close friend. It will answer all questions.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Their would have seen thousands of children in a similar situation whist traveling in that area. That picture probably saved many lives.
August 29th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I don’t know how many of you are photojournalists, but I study these things and our job is to tell the people what we see, not interfere. There are other associations that are responsible for feeding starving people, and you don’t see them taking photos.
Kevin Carte did more than enough by taking the picture and then scaring away the vulture. The child would have died anyway, not because of the vulture, but because of the starvation.
Think for a few seconds before you take any conclusions.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Has anyone stopped to think, that in taking this photo he has changed and broadened the attitudes of people across the world, bringing such massive attention to an issue that was highly re-guarded and barely spoken about.
Now, that boy may have died, i dont know, but im sure many other children were saved due to the exposure this photo gave the issue.
Dont blame the photographer and its naive to make him out as the killer, the moment in which he saw this child didnt kill a life time of starving and having his basic human rights (food and shelter) ignored resulted in the death of this innocent child.
August 30th, 2008 at 1:20 am
** dis-regarded should i say, sorry
August 30th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Another thing to be aware of, was that there wasn’t just this child. The photographer was overwhelmed by all the children and other starving people. Other than the warnings about disease etc, he would have been overwhelmed by the weight of need all around.
I spent a year helping starving sick war victims in Africa in 1989. At times, derspite the need around you, you have to choose to eat something good, drink something nice, take a shower and sleep just to maintain your sanity, or else choose to give in to the need, maybe commit suicide, and no longer be of assistance to those around.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Starvation is a serious condition that can’t be reversed by a happy meal!!! It baffled me to read these outrageously ignorant remarks that are so typically american.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:16 am
In a situation like this there seems to be no good answers which will solve all the problem the world is facing!!! Look around you and you’ll see the needs in the faces of the people you meet, whether near or far. You don’t really need to see this picture to realize that you have to lend a helping hand if your heart is in the right place.
August 31st, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Africa was better off when it was a colonial possession of the European powers.
August 31st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Looks like a tootsie roll with arms.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:56 pm
get your own “identity” cripple. i’ll skullfuck you.
ps: sorry, seen too many hollywood flicks lately
September 1st, 2008 at 6:36 am
Absolutely devastating.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
They were most likey asked not to touch or help anyone. There is too much of a risk. It’s devastating but this photo probably help so many peope see what was really going on. The child looks in such a bad way i doubt they would have survived much longer anyway.
September 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] Starving Child Vulture [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I cant believe he didnt try to assist that poor bird, obviously the child was too large to carry off in one piece…
September 1st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
He couldn’t have assisted the little boy with food anyway because a starving person’s body cannot break food down like our normal bodies. Had the little boy been given food, he would have probably died from his digestive system not being used to that type of food. Or he would have suffered from severe cramps and diarrhea, then died.
September 1st, 2008 at 10:13 pm
great lala. if you say so, it must be so.
why do americans eat? so that the word “starvation” is outside their vocabulary.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:12 am
lala, Im following you…
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 pm
realy, isnt this an argument for mercy killing?
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 am
At that time it was impossible to save that child, look at hes condition. Our coverments ahould focus more to africa!
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
We are all sorry,….But, how many would help the UN food aid programs in cash???
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
no gotts cash
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Tor Says:
August 28th, 2008 at 8:27 am
“I’d hit that!”
I bet you would. It says a lot about you. What country are you from? That would also say a lot about you, but you won’t have the courage to answer without a lie.
Tor: “why do americans eat? so that the word “starvation” is outside their vocabulary.”
(What the hell does that mean? Americans should starve so you can feel better about the shit hole you grew up in?)
Too bad you don’t think before you speak so that you aren’t seen as a complete ignorant moron. Too late for that.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:31 pm
# wil Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Delial…?
Glad I’m not the only one who thought that, nor the only one here that read that amazing book.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 pm
An angel visited the green earth,
and took a flower away…
September 4th, 2008 at 4:11 am
I was born in, and live in, and love South Africa, where Kevin & Joao were born, wrote and published.
For those of you that can think past your noses, Well done, for those Ignorant people caught up in this little “American” safety Bubble, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHERE AFRICA IS ON A MAP…?
Your comments only help & hi-lite just how ignorant you really are, Read a book, do some research and gain SOME KNOWLEDGE, You burger flippers.
Regards
September 4th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I don’t think a sandwich was gonna help that kid.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:32 am
This is the saddest picture I have ever seen. Seeing something truly this sad only confirms that there can be no higher power. A “kind and loving creator” would not allow something like this to happen. I’m not trying to turn this into a religious discussion but that is the first thought that comes to mind when I see pictures like these.
This is a terrible and cruel world we live in. If it weren’t for photographers such as these we would never know things like this even exsisted. So maybe after a few million people saw this picture things changed for a few kids that would have been in this same situation. The man deserved a f**king Pulitzer for this photo and just seeing it makes me deeply depressed and sad for all those who are starving.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
koko say god dead yep yep, long live koko
September 4th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
instead of asking why didnt the photographer help (with answers clearly reflected in several responses, for those who continue to overlook them), perhaps why not ask, why has [society] allowed this to happen in the first place? the insanity of humanity.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I am and I was deeply sad, it is terrible and I do not know the solution.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
why didnt the guy taking this picture try to help, thats criminal !!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
you know you people are a bunch of ********, I cant believe you think you can just blithely ignore the seriousness of these pictures and make these awful comments. Im so sick of the human race I could just vomit. In fact I think I will! blleeaaaacccchhhh!!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
maybe someone could feed that to this starving baby…
September 5th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
gabby, your just awful!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
well, gee Arm, I was just trying to be helpful…
September 5th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
oh, ok, never mind…ooops, gotta go!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Hey Arm. Stop eating that Big Tasty With Bacon meal.
September 6th, 2008 at 12:59 am
This the most pitifullest pic i have ever seen…..why didn’t someone help that child?
September 6th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
in the places that those children live, people already know what are the limits of the human. Those children wouldn’t survive, doesn’t matter if they’d eat or not. :/
September 6th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
feel free Carmella to do your bit, convert all your possessions to cash, fly to Africa, and convince these people to adopt sustainable agriculture, use condoms, stop killing one another, cull their herds of cattle and goats which overgraze the available forage, plant trees, and stop using plant materials as fuels for cooking.
September 7th, 2008 at 11:51 am
¿Donde empieza la información y donde terminan los valores humanos? No se trata de cerrar los ojos para no ver lo que sucede a nuestro alrededor, pero una cosa es la noticia y la otra muy distinta el morbo. ¿hasta donde esta dispuesto llegar un reportero, o un fotografo por buscar una primera plana? Nos hemos vueltos tan inhumanos, tan insensibles, tan…no tengo palabras.
Señores, viendo estas fotos me entristece ver como algunos han perdido el rumbo como personas. Siento verguenza ajena, pero no solo por el fotógrafo, ¿quien tubo los pocos escrúpulos para premiar esta fotografía? Todos han sido como ese vuitre.
Ojala cargen con esa fotografía en su conciencia toda su vida.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
During that tome the photographers were specifically told not to help.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
my momma dun told me, to bring home some dinner
September 8th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
[...] Starving Child Stalked by Vulture telkens opnieuw word ik er mottig van… (tags: photography shocking) [...]
September 8th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
it takes great courage to expose this situation for what it is- a grisly image that speaks for itself. Truth is one hell of a commodity these days. The photographer was a conduit, a poor ******* in a sense. He was trying to tell us something, this was not a person with a camera, but with the burden of conveying a truth. I commend him, albeit postmortum, what else could he have done by try to help the thousands with the one weapon he had? His trusty lens.
September 8th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
@nora…
very true amiga, where is discernment in assigning value to shock journalism? We are all translated from passive observers into partakers of the vultures feast, not cruelly per se, but simply in futile realization of the limitations inherent to our humanity. ¿necesidad digo más?
September 8th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
whaaaa?
September 10th, 2008 at 3:00 am
[...] : http://photosthatchangedtheworld.com/starving-child-vulture/ Ceviri: Serhat Duygun Posted by serhatduygun Filed in Uncategorized Tags: Fotograf Odul aclik [...]
September 10th, 2008 at 3:34 am
The eye of the photographer….. anyone calling himself a photographer and is worth the title will know that it is not just “happy snappy” … a good photographer seizes the moment, see things through a different angle, capture one point of view. I think, and that is my opinion, that Kevin seized the moment, and now that moment is shared throughout the world, touching people, changing their perception and even helping with aid in some way or another.
Doing your research you will find that the photographer did not act cruel in any way and that this moment in time touched him deeply. My heart goes out to his family.
Regarding posts that is insensitive, cruel and just plain stupid, I have this to say …
Stop bickering about who’s the who and what country is superior to the next, stop attacking the photographers, they are doing something they love to do, and it can be done with compassion. If after learning what happened and seeing the truth unfold through these photo’s and you still don’t get it, ….then my friend you lack something that I cant even try to explain to you, because that is something else you wont get.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Why don’t they just eat the vultures?
September 10th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
the photographer ought to go hang himself, how can he live with himself after seeing this and rather than helping the child, simply use his misery as one more photo opportunity!! I hope he made a lot of money off this picture the *******, probably on a beach somewhere drinking pina coladas.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
yeah, im wondering why no one is helping this child and children like that. whoever took this photo makes me sick if they did nothing to help. There are millions of starving children and yet we just take a picture for the money we would get out of it. while they have NOTHING. no food no money no clothes. what is wrong with this world? everyone just needs to give a little, even if you cant do much. whatever you do will make a difference, it will change someones life.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:47 am
oh and…
meowz Says:
September 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
During that tome the photographers were specifically told not to help.
how could you not help? why would someone tell them not to? honestly, if i was that photographer, i would want to do everything i could to help, whether the child was going to die or not.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:39 am
In Rich countries, they through milk , wheat and food in the sea so that its prices don’t drop or decrease
and look how they are so sellfish??????
September 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
to brit, and to every self righteous, judgmental person here.
it’s easy to sit in your inner-city apartment, sipping on your takeaway latte after a day of arrogant liberal discussions at your art college, and tell the world how brave you would be, and how terrible mr carter was.
you have NO idea what was going on. you have NO IDEA what you would do if you were in the same situation. suppose you saw children like this every day for two months, and the hopelessness had reached you so intensely you knew there was nothing you could to to help? what if the military convoy you were travelling with specifically ordered you to not pick up any children. would you be brave enough to waiver their orders and pick up the child and carry it to safety? even though you knew that it was already too late for the child?
NO. You have NO idea, you’ve lived a sheltered life where you’ve never had to deal with dilemmas like these, where fear and morality battles inside you. We can talk about what would be the RIGHT thing to do, and of course, the right thing would be to try to help the child. But don’t sit there in your comfy chair and judge those who were in a situation that you have NO right to judge. Don’t tell me what you would do. Trust me, it takes bravery that most of us don’t possess to do something like that in real life. Tell me what would be the right thing to do. But don’t pass judgement. The exact reasons why Mr. Carter committed suicide remains unclear, but I can’t even imagine the internal struggle he must have endured. And maybe he made the wrong choice, at least it seems he feels that himself. But I have no right to judge him.
the picture circulated the world and is considered one of the most important pictures in photojournalistic history. the people here who thinks he took the picture to make money… i have no words for your ignorance. this picture helped raise awareness of the food crisis in sudan like no other documentation.
So if you’re going to sit there and claim to be such a brave person with an impeccable intergrity, you better prove it in a better way than bashing Kevin Carter. Until then, shut up.
I’m sorry if this post is a bit rambling. I’ve had this discussion before, and every time it gets me so angry I start to shake.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
@alex…actually, you are full of it..I know exactly what I would do, and so does every other caring decent individual. I wouldnt do as this *** Kevin did and find a way to profit from this terrible spectacle. he didnt think, what a tragedy, if so he would have acted, instead he thought, what a photo opportunity, and snap went the shutter, capturing the tormented soul of this child for you and everyone else to pity….shake away, you ***.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Actually it was revealed later in a Japanese interview with one of his colleges that he committed suicide due to financial problems, not out of guilt from the starving boy. But it does make for a more compelling photo when it’s mentioned that he killed himself three months later.
September 13th, 2008 at 3:13 am
We have a lot of pictures like this in the wrold.
don’t make sad your self.
Take it easy just go to the restaurant and serve any thing you want.
Nobody can say you what you did not help to such this!
If somebody told you please let me know!
What would you like to have sandiwtch,steak,beef,…?
This is a real life
September 13th, 2008 at 3:29 am
No jeri, you know what would be the RIGHT thing to do, you know what you HOPE you would do. but you don’t know what you ACTUALLY would do.
“His picture of an emaciated girl collapsing on the way to a feeding centre, as a plump vulture lurked in the background, was published first in The New York Times and The Mail & Guardian, a Johannesburg weekly. The reaction to the picture was so strong that The New York Times published an unusual editor’s note on the fate of the girl. Mr Carter said she resumed her trek to the feeding centre. He chased away the vulture.
Afterwards, he told an interviewer, he sat under a tree for a long time, “smoking cigarettes and crying”. His father, Mr Jimmy Carter laid last night: “Kevin always carried around the horror of the work he did.” - The New York Times
Source: Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 30 July 1994″
“snap went the shutter, capturing the tormented soul of this child for you and everyone else to pity”… yes, I do pity the child, and it saddens me to know tragedies like these are going on RIGHT now while those in power does far too little to help.
Do you even know what photojournalism is? Do you know what their purpose is? Like I said, I don’t know why he committed suicide. But I’ve heard a few interviews with war-journalists and photojournalists from crisis-areas. Most of these people, and there are of course exceptions, have voluntarily put themselves in extremely dangerous situations, without the military training maybe those they travel with have. They don’t do this for profit, they do this because it’s important that someone documents the ongoing tragedies. They understand the importance of documentation. And pictures do just that much more efficient than any other medium.
I just don’t buy that a person who has spent a significant amount of his career in extremely poverty-stricken area is doing it simply for cheap photo opportunities. I think he hopes what he does can make a difference in a cynical world where people are more interested in pointing fingers at individuals than working towards the bigger problems.
What about the journalists that writes articles about famine in Africa? Why don’t they pick up every dying child and help them? Don’t you think any journalist in the same area would see just the same things, and write about it instead? Is that any better? Aren’t they “using” equally horrible images in their writing?
Like I said, I hope I would do the right thing. I know what’s morally right to do. I know I would feel terrible if I didn’t do it. But I’m not going to say what I WOULD do. Not in a commentary field on a blog. I have no idea what would happen once I was there.
And I am a caring, decent individual.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
“snap went the shutter, capturing the tormented soul of this child for you and everyone else to pity”….
Bullshit. Pity cant help. What this kid needs is food. And you eat more than you need.
September 13th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
@Alex,,,, actually i do know what i would do, I have been in strange situations before and i always do as i think is right…theres no need to wonder, so speak for yourself. Its enlightening that you note the girl crawled on, while he sat under a tree. why didnt he carry her to the station? that exposes the bullshit right there. I bet he carried around th horror, probably easier then carrying her, the ***. I have np pity for him, he was a smuck and the world is better of without people like that. Killed himself cuz he went broke, there is the power of money verses the power of humanity, and dips like you want to spend your time trying to figure out a way to JUSTIFY him????? **** you.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Ok. I guess you’re a better person than me and Kevin Carter.
September 14th, 2008 at 10:34 am
So he committed suicide. That releases him of all his guilt. Then I guess Hitler shouldn’t be bad mouthed either right? This guy composes this shot for 20 minutes…..and there are people defending him!
September 14th, 2008 at 11:45 am
This is an amazing shot…I really feel bad for the photog for all the bad press he got because it was probably a split second decision for him. The picture he took is so powerful!
September 14th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
There seem to be many people on this board who seem to think that Carter was wrong to take the photo and not feed this child. Firstly, he was under strict orders not to touch famine victims. Secondly, do you really think “giving her a sandwich” would have helped? Basic biology dictates that after a long period of starvation, you are unable to digest food. If he had given her food, it would have killed her, much like what happened when well meaning soldiers fed survivors of concentration camps after WWII. Stop being so judgemental and do something to change what you see.
September 15th, 2008 at 1:39 am
@andrew..strict orders from who, and who obeys such orders? as to your ’secondly’, a bite of the sandwich he had himself well chewed would have indeed helped her. As for doing something to change what I see, I do that quite simply by challenging your bullshit about this photo, as long as you make excuses for him you perpetuate the misery, there is no excuse.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:42 am
screw whoever gave me orders. if i saw someone dying, young or old. im going to help.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Down of civilization!
September 16th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Exactly. Why didn’t anyone help him when he was STARVING!!!???
September 16th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
For some of you asking, not sure if other have brought it up, but for those asking why he did not grab the baby. I saw this on another site and they explained it much better. He wanted to, very badly, but was under strict orders not to aid or touch anyone. Not sure why, but he was strictly forbidden to help out anyone. Desise perhaps, I really don’t know. Anyway, from what I understand it really tore him up, hence the suicide Im guessing. If someone has a better explanation or knows more that’s fine and do post. But im just saying what I read elsewhere.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
my question is: why everyone ask about this child (why Kevin didn’t save), but they don’t do anything to change de misery in the world?
a photographer take photos and it’s the way to change the reality.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
The child was probably helped in some way…. the photographer just had a point to make by taking the pic!
September 20th, 2008 at 12:12 am
One should NEVER interfere in the prevailing food chain, at least it wasn’t a dingo (Dirty Insignificant Nasty Growling ‘Orrors). Deprive Vince the vulture of lunch and a butterfly might not beat itself off in China as the saying goes, not that Vince, the photographer or Sambo would care much, wherever they are now.
September 20th, 2008 at 5:02 am
There are two versions of the story:
*Unofficial:
He was accompanied by “other side” soldiers who did not let him help the child.Even if they did he could do nothing.It has nothing to do with desise, it was a time of war, and I would like to see
jeri Says:
September 15th, 2008 at 1:39 am
@andrew..strict orders from who, and who obeys such orders?
jeri for example not obeying an order given by soldiers holding rifles.
*This is internet forums version and most likely not true.
Official:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Carter
Which one you believe in is a matter of choice, but please do not mislead others.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:34 am
What do you all think?
That this is an isolated incident?
How can you ask what happened to Sambo, when just out of shot Vimce the vulture’s little sister, Vanda is breakfasting?
The photographer could have taken tens, scores or hundreds of similarly themed photos everyday.
Dumbasses.
‘What happened to the little boy?’ The same ******’ thing that happened to the other millions,!!
‘Does anyone know what happened to the little boy?
Get with the programme numbnuts!!!
Within a stone’s throw of that photo there are a hundred other REALLY hungry Sambos and the not-so-famished family of Vince the vulture.
Soldiers? Wouldn’t let him help? You asswipes
Just what the **** are you harpin at? Buttmunches!!!!!
Why didn’t he help…? Your stupidity is beyond belief. Lowlifes, buttfuckers, ****, dorks and wankers.
I’ve included a variety of insults for all tastes, heñp yourselves.
‘Guilt felt for the starving boy…’ He’d forgotten him in 5 seconds!!!!
IDIOTS!!!!!!
September 20th, 2008 at 11:42 am
and wtf the man/woman who did that photo couldn’t help that young boy ?!
September 20th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
That’s right Hekko NEVER EVER READ what others wrote.
September 20th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
The reason the person who took the photo didn’t help the boy was because he was told not to, because of the threat of disease being spread. He committed suicide 3 months later because he hadn’t helped him.
September 21st, 2008 at 6:13 am
Was the little boy paid for the photo?
Does he get royalties every time we click on it?
And perhaps more importantly….
Do we know the little boy’s name?
What was this ‘disease’ the little boy was spreading, so apparently resistant to white man’s medicine?
Can vultures catch it?
Or just IDIOTS!!!!!
September 21st, 2008 at 6:40 am
The photographer should have helped the lil’ tyke.
Is that why the photographer died? Outta guilt?
Did he get the parents’ permission to take the photo?
You’d think the parents would worry just a liiittle bit more about their son. If he’s old enough to be left on his own, he’s old enough to go to school.
And why ISN’T he atttending school? Is it because of this ‘disease’ thing he’s got. Well I hope he’s got a doctor’s note.
Unless he’s playing truant (U.S. hookey)
Maybe the photographer was a private detective hired BY the parents to check if the little runt was skivin’ off.
Look, I’m just throwing out suggestions here, I, like the first three posters, am truly baffled by the whole thing.
Can somebody, ANYBODY dear lordy help me to understand?
…..btw Why didn’t the photographer help the little boy?
September 21st, 2008 at 6:43 am
What was the little boy’s name?
Did anybody help him?
September 21st, 2008 at 7:20 am
Vultures need to eat too. Couldn’t somebody think of the poor starving bird, and offer up some A1 sauce?
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
If you have questions about what happened to the child, why they didn’t help him and more, read the book written by the group of photographers who were there http://www.amazon.com/Bang-Bang-Club-Snapshots-Hidden-War/dp/0465044131, visit africa, take your head out of your ***, get off your couch and stop preaching, the reason you know about these things is because some people did. Kevin Carte committed suicide because of the effect of seeing images like this for years, you see one isolated picture, this was happening on a huge scale and still is.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 am
i’m sure that all the people saying “why didn’t he carry the boy” or “why didn’t he give the boy a sandwich” are all living a good life in the states, surfing the web and just finding ways to criticize others for their productive work instead of getting up on their asses and doing something… how have you impacted others today? kevin carter has been dead almost 15 years and his work still lives on… have you never been to poorer countries where people drink their own pee or eat other humans in order to survive? i’m sure you wouldn’t understand the atrocity of starvation unless you saw this photograph… so thank you kevin carter, for your courage to make this exposure and publish it to the world.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
As a photojournalist you have to make a rather difficult choice sometimes… either take the picture to show the world what is going on or get involved and risk no one knowing what is happening. It’s just one of the big issues concerning journalism and ethics.
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
shocking, huge influence on people’s mind…
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
KILL THAT DAMN BIRD AND FEED IT TO THE KID
September 24th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Ya the kid has a taste for vultures…
September 25th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
why didnt someone help this poor kid?
September 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
this is so silly, come on people, what would you do, take the one in a million shot that would make you an icon and establish you in your career or help some little kid that should have known better than to be in that situation. Where has the idea of personal responsibility for ones situation gone, are we abandining that hallowed ideal in this modern welfare state? Why wasnt the little boy allowed to own a pistol? He could have shot and eaten the bird
September 26th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Ohhhh, vulture casserole !!!
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:27 am
Sorry about Sara’s comment. It seems her “flow” is a bit heavy this month and she’s really not acting herself.
October 4th, 2008 at 6:19 am
its a big question in minde since i have seen this photo
what did kevin do then?
October 4th, 2008 at 9:44 am
its time like these, after all these racist comments, i wish that the whites got enslaved, tortured, lynched and starved, instead of the blacks… ku klux klan has laughed too much… they’ll be punished soon… under obama’s watch… the blacks will revolt, and the whites will be obliterated, and the smart people, like me, will sit here and laugh…
October 4th, 2008 at 11:17 am
hes mooning that ******* vulture, at least the kid has a sense of humour
October 5th, 2008 at 12:57 am
You people are all so ignorant and uneducated.
Sure, Kevin could have carried this child to a food centre and risked his own health in the process - the child would have just died later rather than sooner. And what about the other couple of million starving children he couldn’t carry to shelter? Is he to be responsible for their deaths too?
He was never an aid worker. He was a photographer. He shone light on a situation all you people comfortably sitting in your homes with food on your plate each night never knew existed.
How dare you sit there an lay blame on him - he’s done more to help then most of you will ever do in your entire meaningless self centred lives.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I came across this picture as an early teen and have kept it with me for the many years since then. As sad as the content is, it has always been my reality check for when life gets all too stressed and depressing.It has made me incredibly grateful for the family I have and the things I have experienced and achieved. No matter what happens to us as individuals, be it a work or life situation, it will never be on the scale of the struggle for life that this child had gone through.It makes me appreciate what I have, not what I don’t have in todays society.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:52 am
ROFL @ THE ABOVE
October 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
“the photographer ought to go hang himself, how can he live with himself after seeing this and rather than helping the child, simply use his misery as one more photo opportunity!! I hope he made a lot of money off this picture the *******, probably on a beach somewhere drinking pina coladas.”
i cant get over how Hypocritical people can be. are you telling me that everyone of us has stopped when they see someone in need and done everything they can to help them out?
do everyone of us work in industries that do charity work, that directly helps out suffering people instead of making money for ourselves. we all have ways and means of helping make change. there needs to be people who bring the horrible truth into our living rooms and give us a wake up call.
there is no denying that Kevin regretted the way the situation carried out. Have we all not made decision we regret or wished we had done more in situations.
i am really not pointing fingers. i am as guilty as the next person for sitting in home in South Africa doing jobs that don’t usually help out the most destitute people in the world.
i just think that there are few of us that have any room to criticize. i think it is more wrong that the rest of us are sitting at home preferring to ignore what we don’t want to see. this forum just goes to show that photo has managed to do what it needed to do - wake us all up. whether we agree with it, we have all had emotions awakened and through that we each will (hopefully) try to make a difference.
i could go on but i think that’s good for now
October 7th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Ask yourself the question? What would contribute more to the world and to getting help? The photographer trying to save this one child who most likely would die no matter what he did, or taking an iconic photograph which has contributed sympathy to the African cause for generations. Some people are not seeing the bigger picture. (no pun intended)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
yes, why help this child when he can publish pictures and use the money to help his own family live more comfortably? What a bunch of asses making excuses for this ******* letting a baby die, like the picture is more important than the babies life just because a lot of people have seen it. Get a life jerks.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Your comments baffle me. There are more serious issues to think about than “Why didn’t he help the child?” It’s not the point. Americans have such a lack of perspective, it’s incredible. You can feel empathy in the single situation, but feel no shame that you’re benefiting from the starvation that created the situation in the first place. The fact that this one person did not help this one individual doesn’t make the situation untrue.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:06 am
WE NEED TO JOIN HANDS TO FIGHT POVERTY AT ALL COST
October 8th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Well, I just came across this picture after talking about it in my visual communications class.
People can say that they’re disgusted by how Kevin dealt with the situation, but you have to ask yourself why you’re getting so worked up. Is it because he took such a strong picture, that it grabbed your attention. You feel strongly about it because of the moment he captured. You are drawn into it, because it shows you something that you would never want to face, but Kevin Carter did face it, and his picture, being shown to millions has helped in a greater way than him helping this little girl could have. (at least that’s what I believe, seeing as we discussed in my class that the little girl, did not in fact make it. she made it to the food centre, but she was too far gone.)
I, myself, would love to say that I would help this little girl. That I would carry her away from it all. That I would love her, and save her life. But I can’t honestly say that I would because I’ve never been put in a situation ANYTHING like this one at all. Besides, Kevin Carter was surrounded by people like this, he can’t help them all, how do you pick and choose who to save and who not to? If this was an older person, I don’t believe it would be quite as powerful, although that person would still be just as helpless as this little girl.
So, you may get really mad, and you may criticize him, but it’s your getting angry that makes you think about it, and act on it. It’s the people that got angry about this photo that went out and did something about it. And in that aspect, we owe so much to Kevin Carter.
It’s not as if he was a heartless photographer, just after an award winning picture. Kevin Carter killed himself shortly after taking the photo saying “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain… of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen…” Although he said, when asked why he didn’t help the girl, that journalist were told never to touch the famine, in fear of disease, He confided to his friends that he later whished he had intervened. He also told them that after he took the photo he “sat under a tree for a long time, smoking cigarettes and crying”.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
re; beth, well your about full of shite arent you!
October 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
no wonder the photographer committed suicide. why would your just take the fucken picture and leave the child to die?
October 11th, 2008 at 12:55 am
please delete comment 140. please.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
The comments posted here started with pity n awakeness on poverty in Africa. N just look at the last 4 - 5 comments… !!!!!
October 13th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
jez some people are seriously messed up makin a joke outta tings lik this…..a comment 140 is just sick delete it
October 14th, 2008 at 12:51 am
nah its ruthless. leave it there
October 14th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Awww poor vulture… Has to wait for the thing to die
October 14th, 2008 at 10:57 am
I don’t know why I’m bothering to write anything here. The trolls and the willfully ignorant who refuse to consider that the rest of the world does not work the same way as their comfortable bubble does, and that sometimes there are no quick and easy solutions will completely ignore this comment, leaving me preaching to the choir. But here goes:
You people seem to think that Kevin Carter was just some tourist strolling merrily through some inner city of a first-world nation. This was not the south side of Detroit or Chicago. This was poverty-stricken Africa. He was not there lightly. He didn’t “snap” this photograph on a whim. He was a photojournalist. His job was to document things to bring awareness to people like you (yes, and me) who take their comfort for granted. He did not take this picture to make himself rich. He was doing his job.
You people seem to think that Kevin Carter was such a terrible person for not doing anything to help. Just because the U.N. food camp was out of the range of the camera doesn’t mean it was non-existent. Help was being provided. That was the job of the U.N. and the humanitarian workers stationed there. Carter’s job was to show the world what was going on, to make a distant and unthinkable situation very, very real to the rest of us.
You people seem to think this child is an isolated incident, and left abandoned. This was in the middle of Africa, where corrupt government and mismanaged resources led to widespread poverty and rampant starvation. This child’s parents were retrieving rations from a U.N. food camp, which was set up to help everyone in the community.
You people seem to think that feeding this child a good meal (by your own Standard American Diet definition) would have done any good. Once the body reaches that level of starvation, too much of the wrong kind of food sends the system into shock. Death follows much, much sooner. There is no instant cure for starvation. It is not as simple as all that.
You people seem to think that the rules saying he couldn’t touch these people or interfere were senseless and stupid. If you’re not trained in a certain field, your efforts will end up doing more harm than good. And when you ask why he didn’t ignore the rules, I ask you this: Would you ignore specific instructions if you were surrounded by armed guards?
Bottom line: Kevin Carter’s photograph helped more in the long-term than simply escorting one child a few yards to a food camp would have done in the short-term.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Comment 140. “N***ERS” has been saying awful comments through out the site. Shouldn’t someone be deleting them ?
October 16th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I Feel So Sorry For Them Poor Starving Children In Africa But Why Didnt He Take Food And Give It To That Poor Boy Starving And Get Rid Of That Horrible Vulture
October 16th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
From what I heard as the truth behind the photo is the person who took it didn’t notice it was a child at first until it was developed. At first glace they thought it was a rock or something of the sort.
October 18th, 2008 at 5:40 am
Where’s the evidence for this claim that Carter had been told not to help the child because of infection? I’ve been googling and can’t find any mention of this. I call bullshit and all of you above who’ve just been blindly repeating it should be ashamed of yourselves. And even more so for falsely representing this as a dichotomy - that Carter had to choose between the photo and helping her. A flat lie: there was nothing forcing such a choice, nothing but his own callousness stopped him from helping her AFTER taking the photo. I noticed that he only claimed to have shooed off the vulture after the firestorm of criticism broke; makes me wonder if he made that up to try to make himself look better.
October 18th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
South African photojournalist Joao Silva, who accompanied Carter to Sudan, gave a different version of events in an interview with Japanese journalist and writer Akio Fujiwara that was published in Fujiwara’s book The Boy who Became a Postcard (Ehagakini Sareta Shōnen).
According to Silva, they (Carter and Silva) went to Sudan with the United Nations aboard Operation Lifeline Sudan and landed in Southern Sudan on March 11, 1993. The UN told them that they would take off again in 30 minutes (the time necessary to distribute food), so they ran around looking to take shots. The UN started to distribute corn and the women of the village came out of their wooden huts to meet the plane. Silva went looking for guerrilla fighters, while Carter strayed no more than a few dozen feet from the plane.
Again according to Silva, Carter was quite shocked as it was the first time that he had seen a famine situation and so he took many shots of the children suffering from famine. Silva also started to take photos of children on the ground as if crying, which were not published. The parents of the children were busy taking food from the plane so they had left their children only briefly while they collected the food. This was the situation for the girl in the photo taken by Carter[citation needed]. “God was smiling on Kevin.” A vulture landed behind the girl. To get the two in focus, Carter approached the scene very slowly so as not to scare the vulture away and took a photo from approximately 10 metres. He took a few more photos and then the vulture flew off.
Silva stated that he also took similar photos, but didn’t win the Pulitzer Prize. “That’s just the way things go.”