Pulitzer Prize Winning Photo: Starving Sudanese Child

I chose the prize winning photo taken by Kevin Carter, Waiting Game for the Sudanese Child. The photo was taken in March of 1993 in Sudan, Africa. The photo depicts a young, malnourished girl crawling to a feeding center. Behind the girl a hooded vulture stood; most likely waiting for the young girl to die so it can eat her body.

This picture is showcased on a white wall along with 5-10 other pictures. The picture is a medium close up shot and it is printed in its original color. The angle of the picture is low to level with the ground and it is also slightly diagonal because in the picture the girl is closer to the camera and diagonally behind her is the vulture. The picture is on a large rectangular canvas covered in a plastic-like film to preserve the display and to keep it from being ruined by museum guests. The picture itself does not have any type in it but next to it is a description of what the picture is showing and a brief background on the photographer.

The Photographer Kevin Carter was born in Johannesburg, South Africa during the Apartheid. He grew up in a whites-only community but despised the way Black people were treated during that time. As an adult carter enlisted into the Army and served for four years. During this time he witnessed a Black waiter getting harassed and when he went to the waiters aid he was then beat up by his fellow soldiers. After that he went AWOL and tried to become a radio disk-jockey. When that failed he went back to finish his service and then became a freelance journalist. He started out as a sports photographer in the Sunday Express newspaper but then switched to Johannesburg Star where he worked to expose the atrocities of the Apartheid. Later in his life he went to work for Sunday Tribune, the Weekly Mail, and Reuters International News Agency which allowed for his photos to be seen all around the world.

The mood of the photo is a very somber one. This image was taken in 1993 in Darfur, Sudan.

During the time this picture was taken, Darfur was experiencing an extreme famine and this picture is a depiction of how life was for the citizens living in Darfur. It was a dry land and food was limited. People were malnourished, poor and starving and that can be seen through the photo. The young girl is small and frail; her ribs are protruding through her skin and she is crouched in fetal position as if her thin legs can no longer support her body.

The photographer was not necessarily expecting to take such a picture. He has taken images that reflect the conditions of a country like this one but he was just waiting under a tree to see what would appear. As he was waiting he heard the whimper of the little girl and as if on cue the vulture swoops in behind the girl and Kevin Carter takes his shot. After the was taken Kevin Carter chased the vulture away and went back to the tree where he began to cry.

Kevin Carter may have won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo, however, his photo received a lot negative feedback. Many have criticized him for being selfish for taking a disturbing picture and not helping the girl get to the food feeding station. He could have possibly let a little girl die. However, because of his assignment he was told he could not touch her because of the possibility of spreading disease. This picture combined with other pictures he has take in the past that resemble this type of scene (the suffering of African people) have said to have had an emotional toll on him and he went into a deep depression. Three months after this picture was taken he committed suicide. In his suicide note he says how sorry he is and how the pain and suffering he has seen haunts him and he no longer can find pleasure in anything anymore. His photos deeply affected and this shows that he still has morals. He did this for the picture yes, but he also wanted to help these people; he just was not capable of doing so.

This photo did bring tears to my eyes. When I first saw the photo of course I was disturb by it. Just seeing a little girl getting preyed on by a vulture was startling. When I continued to look at it I started to analyze it more. I noticed how her body was in fetal position, how her body

is just skin and bones, how dry the land is and how there was no one to be able to give that little girl a fulfilling life. What made it worse was that I just thought of how the vulture would be able to take that girl and she would have no strength to fight back. No wonder this photo messed up Kevin Carter because just being there in real life and looking that little girl in the eye had to be the most heartbreaking thing in the world. As for the piece itself I think it was astounding. It capture the suffering of the people and how weak the people were. It also elicited sadness and anger that can then fuel people to help the these people.