Kevin Carter knew the stench of death. As a member of the Bang-Bang Club, a quartet of brave photographers who chronicled apartheid-era South Africa, he had seen more than his share of heartbreak. In 1993 he flew to Sudan to photograph the famine racking that land. Exhausted after a day of taking pictures in the village of Ayod, he headed out into the open bush. There he heard whimpering and came across an emaciated toddler who had collapsed on the way to a feeding center. As he took the child’s picture, a plump vulture landed nearby. Carter had reportedly been advised not to touch the victims because of disease, so instead of helping, he spent 20 minutes waiting in the hope that the stalking bird would open its wings. It did not. Carter scared the creature away and watched as the child continued toward the center. He then lit a cigarette, talked to God and wept. The New York Times ran the photo, and readers were eager to find out what happened to the child—and to criticize Carter for not coming to his subject’s aid. His image quickly became a wrenching case study in the debate over when photographers should intervene. Subsequent research seemed to reveal that the child did survive yet died 14 years later from malarial fever. Carter won a Pulitzer for his image, but the darkness of that bright day never lifted from him. In July 1994 he took his own life, writing, “I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain.”
TIME 100 Photos Explore more iconic images that changed the world.Visit the TIME Shop to purchase prints, posters and more. Visit the Shop
RambleOff on March 1st, 2020 at 15:01 UTC »
This photo was focused on in House of Leaves, with one of the fictional main characters being the photographer. The character was haunted by it in the book, too. It's a pretty heavy photo.
captpal on March 1st, 2020 at 14:13 UTC »
There is a movie called The Bang Bang Club that revolves around the lives of photographers and journalist in South Sudan. It doesn't have good reviews but I remember it being pretty good. Definitely worth checking out.
Gemmabeta on March 1st, 2020 at 13:49 UTC »
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_vulture_and_the_little_girl
Carter was part of a group of adrenaline-junkie war correspondents based in South Africa called the Bang Bang Club. They were Kevin Carter, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva.
Oosterbroek was killed in a friendly fire incident by National Peacekeepers (a neutral force formed from the official South African Army and the various militia groups still active to ensure that the 1994 elections don't turn into a full-blown race war) in Johannesburg during the final days of Apartheid, Silva stepped on a landmine in Kandahar and lost both of his legs (he now runs marathons and rides cross-country motorcycles for fun), Carter finally found what he was looking for and it killed him, Marinovich survived every war from Angola to Zaire (mostly intact) and retired to academia.