Tag: ethics
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Aug 2, 2010
Consider the Subject
Kevin Carter’s most famous photograph is almost impossible to witness without taking a moment to collect yourself afterwards. An emaciated toddler, crouched low to the ground, buries her head between her legs as she nears collapse en route to a feeding center. Looming in the background, a vulture patiently waits for the toddler’s journey to end. Carter, a photojournalist from South Africa, took this photograph while covering the famine in Sudan in 1993. For this image, Carter was awarded the industry’s most prestigious award, The Pulitzer Prize, in 1994. He also received some of the harshest letters of his career from people who had trouble understanding his reaction to the scene he captured. Carter described having heard the “soft, high-pitched whimpering” of the girl and turned to witness the visceral scene. He watched and waited. For twenty minutes he sat nearby, camera in hand, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. For some, this response was unimaginable. And yet many others expressed their respect and appreciation for what he did: offer an image that allowed thousands of people on the other end of the world to bear witness... Read More »
