"The vulture and the little girl"
July 27: 30th anniversary of Kevin Carter's death
His photo from Sudan went around the world in March 1993: a child, emaciated to the skeleton, crouches in the sand while a vulture lurks behind him. Kevin Carter received the Pulitzer Prize for this work. Two months later, the South African committed suicide in Johannesburg.
The photo entitled “The vulture and the little girl” was taken in March 1993. The picture went around the world. After being awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Carter was accused of exploiting the situation for his own fame as a photographer. According to his own account, Carter waited around 20 minutes for the vulture to spread its wings in order to get a better photo. But when this did not happen, he chased the bird away to protect the child. The child had recovered enough to continue on its way.
The Portuguese photojournalist João Silva, who had accompanied Carter to Sudan, described the circumstances differently in an interview: Carter and Silva were flown in by United Nations staff as part of “Operation Lifeline Sudan”. After landing on March 11, 1993, the UN told the journalists that they would fly out again in 30 minutes after the food they had brought with them had been distributed to the women of the village. During the food distribution, the mothers briefly left their children alone. The child in Carter's photo was one of these children. To get a better shot of the two of them, Carter approached very carefully so as not to scare the vulture away. He took several more shots and then the vulture flew away.
According to Wikipedia, a Sudanese man stated years later that the child photographed was his son Kong Nyong and had survived the famine.
Kevin Carter was 33 years old. He left behind a seven-year-old daughter.
From his farewell letter (see excerpts below according to Wikipedia), one can read that he was not only haunted by what he witnessed every day as a photojournalist. He was also troubled by the precarious existence of a freelance journalist:
“I’m really, really sorry, … The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist. … [I’m] 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.”
*Ken Oosterbroek, a photojournalist friend, was shot dead beside him on April 18, 1994 (two days after the Pulitzer Prize was announced for Kevin Carter) during a gun battle in the Thokoza township outside Johannesburg.