The Journalist who Took his Own Life after taking this one Picture

The Journalist who Took his Own Life after taking this one Picture

One of the most Legendary photojournalists in History

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The iconic photo of the Vulture and the starving child that was taken by Kevin Carter is one of the most iconic in history. It captured the terrible situation in Sudan at that time. The picture was controversial, while some praised Carter’s bravery and talent, others questioned his ethics

Early Life

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Kevin Carter was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the apartheid regime, a political system of racial oppression that denied black African’s freedom. Carter witnessed black people being assaulted by white policemen for not carrying a passport which was known as a Dompass, all black South Africans were required to carry a Dompass to move between provinces. Carter was critical of his Catholic parents who chose to do nothing in the face of great injustices.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Johannesburg)

When Carter graduated high school, he studied pharmacy but dropped out due to poor performance, it is then that he was drafted to the army where he worked at the air force. During his time in the army Carter witnessed a black man being assaulted, Carter sided with the black person but was beaten and called a Kaffer-boetie which is nigger-lover in English. Carter briefly left the army in 1980 to become a DJ under the name David, but when that didn’t work out, he went back to the army to finish his time.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

It was in 1983, when Carter was injured in a bombing in Pretoria, while on guard duty, that’s when his interest in photojournalism started. When he left the army he worked as a photo Journalist at the Johannesburg Star, it’s there he met some of his closest friends Ken Oosterbroek of the Star and free-lancers Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. The four covered the violence in the township of Tokoza. The images of violence that were taken by the four Journalists were distributed widely and the four man were dubbed the Bang Bang Club by a Johannesburg magazine.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The Vulture and the Starving child

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Carter and his close friend Joa Silva got an opportunity to travel to Sudan to cover the famine that was ravaging the country. The aid organisations in the Sudan were running out of money so exposing what was happening in the country to the world would help get much needed funding. When Carter landed in Sudan, he began taking photos of the local people, many were either malnourished or injured.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Carter was shocked by what his saw so he headed of to the bush to rest, on his way he saw a child, the weak child was going to a nearby feeding center, when a Vulture landed, Carter took out his camera and waited for the perfect shot, after the taking the photo, he scared away the vulture and went to a nearby tree and cried. The horrors he saw in Sudan were overwhelming. The next day he left Sudan and returned to Johannesburg.

The photo he took in Sudan was featured on an American newspaper in an article titled “The vulture and the little girl”. The photo’s success led to Carter working for global news agencies. In April, 1994, Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. While many praised his talent and bravery, some critics were quick to question Carter’s ethics, why didn’t he help the Sudanese child get to the feeding center, why didn’t he intervene when people were being executed in the streets of Tokoza, did he prioritize taking pictures over peoples lives? Well one of Carter’s colleagues of his Sudanese trip did reveal that the Sudanese Military who were guiding Carter would not allow him to help the child.

Carter was famous but was paid just $2000, which is not a lot if you factor in travel and accommodation, Carter had to be always on the move because of his job. He also had a child to feed. The financial demands and the emotional toll of taking photos of people being executed in the streets, and famine-stricken Sudan was all too much for Carter.

The Suicide

On 27 July 1994, Carter drove his car to a river in Johannesburg where he used to play as a kid, he taped a hose pipe to the exhaust of his car and ran it to the right window, and started the engine. Carter died of carbon monoxide poisoning; he was 33.

Before committing suicide, he left a note:

I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist. …depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners … I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.

— Kevin Carter,

Ken Oosterbroek died of a gunshot wound 3 months before Carter while taking pictures of violence in the township of Tokoza.