Existing comment:
1994 Feature: Waiting Game for Sudanese Child:
By February 1993, South African photojournalist Kevin Carter had spent a decade documenting political strife. In the midst of gunfights, he wondered "about which millisecond I was going to die, about putting something on film they could use as my last picture."
For a change, Carter covered the famine in Sudan. At a feeding station at Ayod on March 23, he saw people so weakened by hunger that they were dying at the rate of 20 an hour. In the bush, Carter heard a soft whimpering, a tiny girl trying to get to the feeding center. A vulture landed nearby. Carter waited. The vulture waited. Carter took his picture and chased the bird away. He sat under a tree and cried.
The photograph ran in newspapers worldwide. Carter received outraged letters: Why didn't he pick up the child? Journalists had been told not to touch famine victims because of disease. But Carter told a friend, "I'm really, really sorry I didn't pick the child up." The controversy and personal problems overwhelmed him. On July 27, 1994, police found Kevin Carter dead, an apparent suicide. He was 33. |