For those of you who have never seen this picture before-- it shows a starving Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture.
Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for this image but ran into some moral dilemmas. Should he have helped the child in the photo? Was it right for him to strictly stick to being a photojournalist and not interfere with his subject?
This image is extremely disturbing to me. We see a hardly recognizable child crouched in ball, bones clearly visible-- thin as ever and then a vulture right behind it. I wasn't aware it was stalking the child until reading the title. It just says so much about the condition this child was living in-- the fact that a bird could even consider this person as prey. I mean even thinking about the person in relation to the size of the bird, they don't even seem that much different. On top of that, seeing a person in such a state of malnutrition is even more devastating. Imagine all of the other people who were slowly deteriorating because they didn't have anything to eat. It's almost unimaginable but this photo really speaks volumes.
It's such a powerful picture-- and maybe this could be one of the arguments in support of the picture-- that it brought attention to just how severe conditions were.
Much of me feels like the photographer should have helped this child-- seeing as she looks very close to death.
The photographer committed suicide 3 months later-- much of which people think was due to how much scrutiny he was under for the photo.
Wow! I had seen this image before, but I didn't know that much back story. I had no idea that the photographer committed suicide. That's truly depressing, but it often takes photos of this caliber to move people to action.
ReplyDeleteGreat picture. I guess experiencing near-deathness made the photographer desire that same thing. Not a good reason at all to commit suicide-- if there was ever one, but it is wild to think that the dude could observe this child and not do anything to help him or her. I think I would have taken the picture and then given the kid a snickers bar and a coke. Although the coke would have to be in a bottle like in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy".
ReplyDeleteGood god man!
ReplyDeleteNo being should ever lay witness to the terrible that this world has to offer when the daunting realization ensues that there is nothing we can do. However significant, the insignificance of our understanding holds much more power than our own (perceived) ability to act upon these understandings, and so we are ultimately left with nothing but our smooshed faces and broken hearts as our eyes try to rationalize such a horrible image to the mind.
This is one of the most haunting pictures I've ever seen. I still find myself going back to it over and over again because it is undeniably powerful. The photographer's suicide only furthers the power of this photo. It is eerily beautiful, in a sickening way. Life imitating art.
ReplyDeleteye hain hindustaaan meri jaan
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