This photo journalist, who still remains a favorite of mine, will periodically come into my thoughts through out the year. He always does. If you do not know of this infamous man, now is as good as any to get to know him. His life and photos will make a great affect on your life and thoughts to come, whether good or bad.
Kevin won a pulitzer prize for feature photography in 1993 before comitting suicide at the age of 33 in 1994.
Born and raised in appartheid South Africa until his death. He was a memeber of the Bang Bang Club, a group of photographers who acted like papparazzi, taking photos and exposing the sadism of appartheid South Africa from 1990 to 1994. Kevin Carter was the first photo journalist to bare the open execution of necklacing..
Kevin traveled to Sudan in 1993 with the Bang Bang Club, and walked out with a prize winning photo. His explination of the photo goes like this, "The sound of high pitched wimpering near the villiage of Ayod attracted me to an emaciated Sudanese toddler. The girl had stopped to rest while struggling to a feeding center, where upon a vulture had landed nearby. I waited about 20 minutes, hoping the vulture would spread its wings. It didn't. I snapped the photo and then chased the vulture away".
Kevin was broke and constantly haunted by the immutable visions of starving and wounded children. Of corpses and their manifestation of anger and pain, and the trigger happy deranged men who killed them, which led to his suicide.
Whether you admire him for his valiant fight to expose the brutality and violence of the racial segregation that is the appartheid policy which dictated South Africa for decades stripping black people of their citizenship. Or whether he disgusts you for taking a photo of a helpless toddler, robbing her of moral help. Kevin Carter will be someone you remember for years to come.
For those of you who want to read more about Kevin, TIME magazine did a superb piece called "The Life and Death of Kevin Carter". I'll inlcude the link.
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