This photo of a girl crawling to a food shelter during the Sudan famine was taken by Kevin Carter, a South African photographer. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for this photo. He was deeply depressed by the experience and committed suicide in 1994. Here is the story.
8 comments:
A picture speaks a thousand words ... and sometimes a picture can narrate a story so effectively, so potently; that a barrage of words is rendered redundant. This story maybe of an individual; but touches the nerve of humanity ...
Remember the picture called "The Unknown Rebel"; of a boy standing in front of a column of advancing tanks, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing??
It makes words superfluous ...
Sometimes pictures can even create momentum much beyond the photographers control ... the photo of Saigon-street shooting is said to be a very powerful catalyst in huge public-demonstrations against the Vietnam war ... In fact that pic. by Eddie Adams; also won Pulitzer Award ...
Whats making Ramani delve into Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize ... is not known.. but is worth it...
*Intern
factual inaacuracy :
dude did not commit suicide just coz he was deeply affecvted by the events rather he was deeply disturbed, drug induced and without money ... he had also just lost his best friend ... all from the article you just gave me ...
the photo is just plain disturbing !
Jigar,
with due respect to your argument and you are free to interpret any event in your own way ....
I would still like to say that Kevin Carter's suicide is one of the highly studied and discussed incidences in photojournalism. They are trained to be emotionally detached to the subject; documenting rather than intervening; but then they are humans afterall .... and so was Kevin Carter ...
This picture was widely discussed just before the Live-8 concert ...
Few explanations put forward for his suicide are:
(These are experts opinions and none is my original interpretation)
- After clicking the picture, he just shoed the vulture away; but did not help the child. He remembered his daughter of about the same age. He was so moved that he wept under a tree ... and was forever haunted by this image and also the fact that he never knew what happened to the lil girl, she died or survived?
- Though he won wide accolades for this pic; there was also widespread criticism and he was called inhumane, opportunist, manipulator... cause he did not help the girl... a classic case of "A journalist's dilemma".
- Use of drugs, in Africa under those circumstances; is no big deal; and this helped relieve tensions while also aggravating depression ...
- He was a member of a group nicked Bang Bang Club; dedicated to exposing horrors of Apartheid, street-violence, famine, hunger .... But his highest honor ; "The Pulitzer Prize" came due to the plight of a helpless child at verge of dying ... this fact can disturb any human-being...
[jigar] yeah seriously it is disturbing. but he was severely criticized for not helping the girl reach the food shelter. paradoxically, after the pulitzer you would expect him to clear up his act. but he just self destroyed.
[intern] wow thats one looonggg reply!! How do you know so much??? I think he used drugs to help him deal with the kind of reality he was facing. I am not sure if he was a drug addict as such. But, it makes for such a story. If, you read the article it sometimes feels like the press are some forms of fultures feeding medals of suffering. Like a mellowed down version of the papparazi.
[intern] yes, i know that famous picture. it was on the cover of the time. apparantly, they tried to locate the person. i am not sure if they located him or not. another famous picture, of the afghani girl with the mesmerising eyes (natural geographics) taken during the afgahn war. they finally did locate her 20 years hence.Hmm..yeah..I remember seeing that. if you want to look at some great images, google for getty images.
I expect and am thankful to this vulture that he awakened the Human Values..When i saw this picture few years ago I remembered the Mass killing of my brethren in kashmiri where Islamic fundamentalists killed many of our people mercilessly and among them was an 8 month kid who was bullet ridden and rather than any one putting white sheet on him .. Indian journalist and worl media was busy picturing it..just to get one more Pulitzer prize...
Billions of galons have gone down the Jhelum river and so has our Story of turmoil and genocide..
I pray that someday Indian Soul awakens to the Apathy and systematic campaign of regressiona nd attrocities in kashmir from all sides..
[khaqsar] I fully agree with you. The Kashmir conflict is an absolute mess. Neither country is going anywhere with it, and each has spent hundreds of crores to just keep it going.
I like your judgement. I think the Indians are as much to blame as the Pakistanis.
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