The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

his own needs.To his defence, he did eventually chase the vulture away, but it was 20 minutes after he took his time to shoot the scene. How would he have known what might have happened within those 20 minutes before chasing the vulture away? This is the question that millions were asking after the image was published in The NewYork Times on 26 March 1993. Most took the more popular view of disapproving of Kevin Carter’s lack of action while others jumped to defend him by conjuring up excuses. But here is what I have to say about the ethics of this photo. Before I state my opinion, it would be wrong for me not to clarify this: the young girl was later revealed to be a boy, named Kong Nyong. So firstly, it was told that the photographers who went on the trip were apparently warned not to touch or make any physical contact with the people they encountered in Sudan.This was in order to protect themselves from any potential viruses and diseases the Sudanese may have been carrying.You may see this as the logical explanation for why Carter was unwilling to help the girl, but I see this solely as one of the mere excuses everyone wanted to hear. This was simply a strong suggestion - it wasn’t as if it were the law, and if I were in the photographer’s shoes, I would have certainly disregarded it.Although the potential diseases were fatal for Kong Nyong as he lived in a remote part of Sudan, it was 1993 and so surely Carter had the facilities to be treated if he were to catch anything and I highly doubt that he and the other photographers on the trip did not have any vaccinations and/or disease risk assessments beforehand.

Another of many defensive

him.To quote SimonVan Booy,“You were unsure which pain is worse - the shock of what happened or the ache for what never will.” In this case, the ache for what Carter never did was so severely excruciating that on 27th July 1994, only four months after claiming his prize, he committed suicide.Although, his death note suggested that this was not the only cause of his suicide. It read:“I am haunted by the vivid memory of killings and corpses and anger and pain. Of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen often police of killer executionists.” suggesting that the horrors he had witnessed over the years had finally caught up with him. He had captured many other controversial and devastating third world moments during his career which must have been tremendously difficult to look at, let alone photograph. It is important to remember that the story behind TheVulture and The Little Girl is not the only one of its kind.The ethics of many other photos have been questioned for similar reasons. For example, Napalm Girl by Nick Ut, Behind Closed Doors by Donna Ferrato and Alan Kurdi by Nilüfer Demir.With the information I have given you, you can decide what and who to believe - whether you understand Carter’s position when he did not want to help the boy or whether you think that helping KongYyong would have been the correct decision and the odds were heavily outweighed by the benefits.The more I did my research, the more often my opinion kept changing but considering everything I have discussed, my original opinion remains - Kevin Carter might as well had been another vulture on the scene.

explanations was that the photographers on the trip, including Kevin, were surrounded at times by several armed Sudanese soldiers who may not have wanted them to get involved with Sudan’s current cir cumstances.The point the public was attempting to make of this was that Kevin could not have possibly aided Kong Nyong because it was likely the soldiers would have declined his request anyway. However, similar to the rest of of the public, I still wonder how we will ever know if he never actually tried.Asking the soldiers would not have hurt anybody. It wouldn’t have made matters worse than they already were and at least it would have given him the assurance that if anything happened to the boy, he was not responsible.There is also a high likelihood that there weren’t any soldiers with him during that moment at all as it was never specified. It could have also prevented a lot of future damage as he could have used it as a verified explanation of why he was unable to help Kong Nyong and that he had the best interests at heart and the tragedy that consequently ensued could have been prevented... After the photo was featured in The NewYork Times, it reached an audience of millions and a year later, it won American Magazine Picture of the Year and a Pulitzer Prize which in the U.S is regarded as one of the highest national honours in journalism, literary achievement, and musical composition. By this time, the criticism and hateful words Carter was receiving doubled every day and his mental health was deteriorating from the increasing guilt he carried with

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