Chapter 3 Visual: Kevin Carter and Picturing Poverty
Photojournalist Kevin Carter won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for this photo of a child trying to reach a feeding station as a vulture watches during the famine in Sudan. Carter and friends took up photojournalism to bear witness to the brutality of apartheid in South Africa, a group dubbed the Bang-Bang Club for its proximity to violence. They then recorded crises around the world (see books, documentaries, and films on the Bang-Bang Club). This photo gained critical acclaim for its stark representation of the crisis in Africa, but it also attracted criticism because Carter appeared to observe the child rather than intervene. Carter committed suicide two months after winning the Pulitzer, leading some to question the consequences of bearing witness for those who risk their own lives and mental health to tell the painful stories of violence, poverty, and hunger. Is telling the story of poverty—through images and words—activism or just observation?
Chapter 3 Visual: Kevin Carter
- TIME Article “The Life and Death of Kevin Carter: Visiting Sudan, a Little-Known Photographer Took a Picture That Made the World Weep. What Happened Afterward Is a Tragedy of Another Sort.” (September 12, 1994)
- Films:
The Other Wes Moore