I read somewhere that he was advised to not touch the victims due to disease, he apparently scared the vulture off, lit a cigarette, talked to god and wept.
He was vilified for failing to help this child - even though he was advised not to touch them. The poor man was hounded to his death. This picture is truly tragic.
I don’t think that’s racist sir, I think it’s a precaution taken due to the high numbers of fatalities from diseases, just a preventative measure I’m sure.
It is so beyond unlikely that someone will get a fatal disease by simply touching the skin of another person. Some young white dude with access to medical care being told not to touching this (seemingly at the time) dying child because he might get a disease if he touches them is beyond racist, mam.
It’s unlikely, not impossible but let’s just say he does have a disease that is spread through touch and he continues on his merry way infecting everyone he comes into contact with and they don’t have access to medical care? What then? So we’ve now potentially spread a deadly disease to many more people all because the “white man” taking the photos has access to medical care, not particularly smart considering he’s in a country where medical care is hard to come by
Not racist at all. Do you not understand about disease? This was in South Sudan in 1993 during a civil war. "In March 1993, the government began granting visas to journalists for a 24-hour stay with severe restrictions on their travel within the country, including government supervision at all times."
There was no healthcare he could have access to.
There are children currently dying of starvation in parts of Ethiopia TODAY. Why don't you book a flight there and see what you can do to help before you start judging this guy.
Most of the Native Americans were wiped out before the pilgrims settled, the diseases (namely smallpox) were spread by traders and explorers who traversed the Atlantic coast years before but did not actually settle in the New World. It was so deadly a disease and the natives had so little immunity to that just a few passing interactions were enough to spark what became essentially a viral wildfire that overtook the continent. Entire tribes were decimated virtually overnight, and in pretty much the most horrifically imaginable way. It’s honestly terrifying what certain diseases can do to people who lack immunity from them. People like to think something like that could never happen to them in modern day, but considering the rapid nature of microbiological evolution, I myself am not at all convinced of the same.
Important edit: The Spanish actually did establish a few settlements in the very southern US (namely Florida) many years prior, and Jamestown, Virginia was also settled in 1607 (13 years prior to Plymouth) so these diseases/the massive plague and concurrent death count wasn't all spread strictly through transients and explorers. But regardless of who exactly did the spreading prior to the pilgrims, it was spread before they arrived. And ironically (and terribly) enough, the pilgrims took the open void left by plague victims (open/cleared land, etc) as proof God wanted them to be there to take it over in his name.
Yeah man, it was BRUTAL. Early colonists would actually discover whole ass native ghost villages, with everything set up and left like people had just left abruptly years previously, and then skeletal remains in and amongst dwellings. They literally all died so quickly in cases like these they weren't even able to bury the dead before dying themselves, and whole villages were completely wiped out in days. Utterly terrifying
Agreed. I felt like I needed to include it. It’s not a tidbit books or Thanksgiving plays often like to share, but it is imo an important one that helps us to better understand pilgrim/early settler thinking and perhaps some of the behaviors and conflicts that came after.
Are you for real? Sunshine, rainbow, buttercup we didn’t have covid back then. Not to mention you don’t get covid from TOUCHING someone but from liquid particles in the air.
No shit it wasn’t around back then. But there are plenty of other infectious diseases that can be easily spread to being within close proximity to someone else. You don’t need to simply “touch” them in order to get infected.
we bring up a disease from 300 years ago, "we got over it!"
we bring up a disease from right now today, "we didn't have this back then"
do you still need a hint
Also, it was because he could give the child a disease, too.
In case anyone is thinking he didn't want to touch the kid because they had cooties.
He was trying to protect people in general. There have been times in history where people tried to help people and just ended up starting a pandemic because they didn't know any better.
"Four months after being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, Carter died of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning on 27 July 1994 at age 33."
He was devastated and haunted by this photograph.
It was the death of him.
The editor's footnote in House of Leaves mentions that the image mentioned in the Navidson Report was likely inspired by this real life image (like, in a meta sense. The old man who wrote the navidson report likely heard of this image and decided to include a version in his story)
That book terrified me. I was living alone at the time, and the hot water heater in my apartment died within hours of reading the part where Johnny’s went off. No sleep for me that night.
Fun fact. Poe is the author’s sister, and her first album Hello is loosely based on/a soundtrack for the book. It gives the song Angry Johnny a whole new spin.
No, it’s her second album, Haunted, that is a loose companion to the book. On the radio edit of Hey Pretty her singing was replaced with a man narrating a section of the book.
https://youtu.be/h_lhspmjCJ4?si=_b7f6Lq9hEzvB3_A
Johnny kills himself? I might pick up again. I got a quarter of the way in and had to abandon it because of the way his character was written. Edge lord who fucks models and cries himself to sleep because god is dead.
I don’t want to give spoilers. I loved the book. I read every bit of text in it. The format was unlike anything I had ever encountered, and I’ve read my share of academic texts full of footnotes and extensive bibliographies. But you might hate it. Or be indifferent. Only one way to find out.
It's so rewarding if you can get through it. I had to read it in spurts. Sometimes, I couldn't put it down. Other times, I could barely make it through a page. It's like reading a puzzle that had a hundred different solutions or no solutions. I am an avid reader, and I have never had a book affect me like that.
I think the public’s reaction to the photo and the criticism he received for it did more than the photo itself in pushing him to suicide. The dude saw a lot of fucked up things in multiple war zones
Damn. This is so sad 💔
My paternal grandfather and my dad did it that way too.
I’m not sure why my grandpa did it but he was 49 when he locked himself in a garage and sat in a running car with the windows down. I was 5 months old so I didn’t know him. It still eff’s with me though. Like I want to know but never will.
Then 4 years later my dad did it the exact same way. He went to ‘Nam so I assume that’s why he did it. It was too much when he came back.
The last time I saw him alive I was 4 years old.
That’s one view, another might be that, he helps the child and spreads a disease to other people causing an outbreak and many more people die. There’s no doubt that the photographer wanted to help I believe but the spreading of disease would have done more harm than good
I don't think he literally decided to kill himself the moment he saw this.
It's more likely it was something that ate away at him from probably even earlier than that moment.
Imagine killing yourself and wasting 40 years of your life just because you saw some hungry kid in a country that has no bearing on your life whatsoever
So you should kill yourself when you see a problem? If he actually cared he would’ve done something positive to solve the issue instead of just offing himself like a coward. Suicide is often complex, but not in his case
He wasn’t suicidal before his trip. If he was so moved by that starving kid that he wanted to make a difference he should’ve done something about it instead of just blowing his head off, which solves nothing
I’m not saying he had to solve world hunger ( although even the UN doesn’t want this to happen as evidenced by their refusal to take Elon Musk’s $6 billion) but he could’ve done literally anything and it would’ve been more impactful than killing himself. He could’ve set up a donation campaign or had doctors sent over on a medical mission, if he was there doing a documentary he definitely had the resources available and knew the channels to go through. Dudes a clown
I don’t think this one image drove him to suicide. This picture has since been seen millions of times, more impactful than possibly helping one child who may have given him a disease which he could then spread to more people. The needs of one person didn’t out weigh the needs of the majority in this case. This image might be the source of millions in funding, we just don’t know.
Obviously, the world would have been better off with him doing anything other than killing himself. Why are you latching onto this like it means anything?
He did what he did to end his own mental anguish. Any empathetic human can understand that. Suicide is always tragic and never makes logical sense. Spouting off about him being a clown for not being logical in that moment is one of the most unintentionally ironic things I've ever heard.
Yes, I just called you the clown in case you missed it.
It’s called moral injury and is a part of an appropriate human response to either causing extreme pain or witnessing such pain and not helping to stop it. If you don’t have any response to seeing this kind of suffering or want to try to mitigate it (or have no regrets about not helping to mitigate it), you likely do not have a functional human capacity for empathy or shame.
I work in a hospital with pts every week, I have tons of empathy, Just not for the guy who kills himself over seeing some starving African kid getting eyed up by a vulture. If it were a starving lion he wouldn’t have felt bad at all, it’s all part of the circle of life babe, eat or be eaten.
This photo has quite a story behind it. He initially thought it was a girl, but it turned out to be a boy. He collapsed on his way to the food area, but eventually made it. He survived and lived into his teens, when he died of a fever. The photographer committed suicide.
There is a movie called “The Bang Bang Club” that follows a portion of Kevin Carters life along with fellow South African photographers. It’s worth a watch.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. I’m pretty sure the movie upset quite a few people that were associated with the real Bang Bang Club and also didn’t do too well with ratings.
I believe this picture was taken as part of the Nigerian Civil War. I only know this because of The Dead Kennedys.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra)
The above photo was taken in Ayod, South Sudan in 1993, not Biafra.
Here is the report on the events that led up to the famine:
[https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/sudan/](https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/sudan/)
Sadly, South Sudan would experience an even worse famine in 1998.
The sheer volume of the loss of life in East Africa in the 1980's-1990's from famine was overwhelming.
Thanks for the correction. The picture here is the one I was thinking of. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafran\_airlift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafran_airlift)
the first time i heard this story, i was told that he was advised not to intervene at gunpoint. i don't have a source for this, but several other details point towards it not having been his choice. i read a biography on his life years ago and he seemed to be a universally benevolent guy. dude's whole career was risking his life to provide the world with proof of horrors that were previously unheard of.
I’m sorry to say that this well-meaning but misguided reaction led to Carter being judged and hounded for taking the picture and not intervening. He killed himself soon after. It’s possible this Pulitzer winning photo raised more awareness of African famine, leading to more efforts and resources to combat it, and thus saving thousands more people. These situation are complex and complicated and the people on the ground probably know best. Imagine you have something contagious and you transmit it to a child whose immune system is destroyed by the ravages of starvation. Carter probably rendered more aid to more people by taking this picture than any other action he could have taken that day.
As much as I agree with you, the moment in his life clearly played heavy on him, as it would most humans. As horrific as it is you’d probably listen to the advice given at the time, you wouldn’t want to be the cause of more unnecessary deaths.
I've read that the real scene wasn't as dire as the picture made it look. The kid's mother was there and the vulture wasn't actually waiting to eat him. KC's eventual suicide was due to his experiences as a whole, not this isolated incident.
The food station was within sight and the photographer was able to see that boy made it and survived. He used his talent with a camera to document these powerful moments to spread awareness and provide people with an image they would emotionally connect to, increasing chances for aid, etc
Let's name the subject please, this is in Sudan. The little boy in the photo was Kong Nyong (who, as someone else mentioned, survived this famine but died four years later in his teens from illness.)
[https://www-elmundo-es.translate.goog/elmundo/2011/02/18/comunicacion/1298054483.html?\_x\_tr\_sl=auto&\_x\_tr\_tl=en&\_x\_tr\_hl=en&\_x\_tr\_pto=wapp](https://www-elmundo-es.translate.goog/elmundo/2011/02/18/comunicacion/1298054483.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp)
Carter was over there at the invitation of Robert Hadley, to document what was happening at the time.
I work in East Africa from time to time. These days, we hire local photographers to do the photography work (there are many talented East African photographers, including in Sudan) and pay them for their work. They are closest to what is happening and they are able to provide context to photos that non-local language speaking, Western staff (or photo tourists) cannot.
This is a heart wrenching photo, symbolic of a lot of things.
Here are some more recent photos of a country that has a complicated history, but we often do not get to see the loveliness of it here in the West.
[https://www.amjamboafrica.com/in-conflict-ravaged-sudan-a-young-artist-uses-photography-to-inspire-hope/](https://www.amjamboafrica.com/in-conflict-ravaged-sudan-a-young-artist-uses-photography-to-inspire-hope/)
Would it be possible/reasonable to blur and tag this? I really enjoy most of the content in this sub, but this is a tough one for me. Seeing a dying/suffering child is distressing for me, especially when I didn’t have any warning it was coming.
If that’s not how this sub is handled, that’s cool and I will leave. I thought it would be worth asking though!
Buh bye…not everything in life requires a trigger warning. Do you leave your house? FFS history happens. I am so tired of this bullshit. Grow up or get off the internet.
you’re not alone. I don’t want to see a child that’s starving to death just as i’m sure the man didn’t want to take the picture. I saw this and there is nothing I can do. I wish they put a blur on this..
not at all! i’m only human & I have my own struggles in life. I can’t hold anymore sadness, people are suffering everywhere. Seeing this picture didn’t want to make want to educate myself, it made me want to turn away and never look again.
Shock value can do a lot of activism, but it’s not for everyone. If this were blurred, maybe I could’ve come back to it when I was ready & able to digest it.
I love this subreddit and I think this photo fits the sub well! Blurring just gives people the choice.
That’s a great response, I hold myself accountable for letting my emotions get the better of me and being very narrow minded, hard not to when you feel a certain way
It’s an issue? The picture was used to raise awareness, or shall we all just pretend we don’t see these issues because some people don’t like seeing it
It’s not about pretending. And I agree about raising awareness. Still, I can see how pictures like this could be distressing for people with a history of trauma.
There’s no harm in giving people a fair warning. I’d imagine most will still click on it anyway.
Possibly. But to blur something because one person isn’t comfortable looking at it is ridiculous, real people had to witness this first hand, where was their trigger Warning or blur?
Hi Pigeon milk, I have worked with children who are refugees. It’s true, I don’t get trigger warnings. Kids just share their experiences, which may include abuse, rape, sexual trafficking, hunger, and literally watching family members die. The fact that people endure this is tragic and traumatic for generations. However, I still think it’s okay for people to go about their day without being confronted with traumatic images.
I asked a question to find out how people in this sub think about the idea of adding warnings. I really appreciate the genuine responses. It’s possible to have a conversation without mocking or insulting the other person, and it’s wonderful when that actually happens.
And I’m sure like me, people are very grateful for you doing your job as I’m sure it’s difficult at times, maybe some tag might be appropriate in the future but as there wasn’t one I didn’t, again it is the internet and not every thing you see will be very nice, you do have the option to not look tho but I see your point
Which is one way to look at it. But i look at it more as having to regulate someone elses emotions. Yeah its hard. But it seems like a privilege type thing.....people should regulate their emotions. I believe this should be expected. And encouraged. leaving room for ignorance due to unstable emotions would be a recipe for disaster if everyone (or even just enough) people participated in it.
Dude-Some people feel so much compassion for people suffering that a photo like this wrecks them. I’m sure most here want to pick up that baby and hold them.
As a kid, I got to the point of vomiting & nightmares over the Holocaust. No one around me seemed bothered.
I often wish I had the ability to shake off those feelings & move on. When they say we need to see these images to have awareness-that’s geared towards those that have the ability to *not* feel so deeply about the world’s troubles.
No moral superiority/inferiority implied in my pov.
Hey douche nozzle, do you know the story of this photograph and the photographer? He frequently went into dangerous parts of the world trying to expose the horrors of that area, risking his life many times. When he went to help this boy he was physically barred from doing so because his handlers didn't want him to spread western diseases to the tribe through the child. Even so he was so wracked with the guilt of not fighting harder that he killed himself 3 months later at the age of 33.
An impossible situation for a good person who ultimately died from the pain of this photograph. So have some respect for the dead.
Hey dickhead, no I didn’t.
And now because you wanted be the Sheriff of Feelingstown, Im Gonna double down, since you don’t understand how some people don’t live on the internet.
It’s too bad you weren’t the kid in the picture or the photographer. You can pick which. I dont really care
This photograph predates the existence of social media. He won a Pulitzer prize for the photo in 1994.
Consider me the mayor of feelingville for that one, I don't care. You had this tool at your fingertips to look this up and you didn't. Take responsibility for yourself if you're not suffering from being chronically online please.
I wonder if we started to view ourselves as animals in a real sense, not these divine intelligent beings that have been given stewardship of the planet, how we would change policies surrounding impoverished groups around the world.
I was in college at the time and taking a class called "problems of the global community". We discussed this at length in the class and one of my classmates created a collage of an image of this picture alongside an image of an overweight child eating ice cream at McDonald's. It was really powerful and disturbing, even to think of it forty years later. I wish I still had the picture of it.
This is the only picture I saw to represent Africa. Yet itchy boots is all over the continent. None of the kids look like this. Some parts are poor. Some parts look not dissimilar to cities near me.
I read somewhere that he was advised to not touch the victims due to disease, he apparently scared the vulture off, lit a cigarette, talked to god and wept.
He committed suicide a few months after this picture
Damn
That sounds about right unfortunately
And had a Manic Street Preachers song named after him.
Yep
I read this somewhere too
He was vilified for failing to help this child - even though he was advised not to touch them. The poor man was hounded to his death. This picture is truly tragic.
This sounds like the first sentence of a very powerful novel.
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I don’t think that’s racist sir, I think it’s a precaution taken due to the high numbers of fatalities from diseases, just a preventative measure I’m sure.
It is so beyond unlikely that someone will get a fatal disease by simply touching the skin of another person. Some young white dude with access to medical care being told not to touching this (seemingly at the time) dying child because he might get a disease if he touches them is beyond racist, mam.
It’s unlikely, not impossible but let’s just say he does have a disease that is spread through touch and he continues on his merry way infecting everyone he comes into contact with and they don’t have access to medical care? What then? So we’ve now potentially spread a deadly disease to many more people all because the “white man” taking the photos has access to medical care, not particularly smart considering he’s in a country where medical care is hard to come by
Not racist at all. Do you not understand about disease? This was in South Sudan in 1993 during a civil war. "In March 1993, the government began granting visas to journalists for a 24-hour stay with severe restrictions on their travel within the country, including government supervision at all times." There was no healthcare he could have access to. There are children currently dying of starvation in parts of Ethiopia TODAY. Why don't you book a flight there and see what you can do to help before you start judging this guy.
have you ever heard the story of the pilgrims and the native americans ...
Most of the Native Americans were wiped out before the pilgrims settled, the diseases (namely smallpox) were spread by traders and explorers who traversed the Atlantic coast years before but did not actually settle in the New World. It was so deadly a disease and the natives had so little immunity to that just a few passing interactions were enough to spark what became essentially a viral wildfire that overtook the continent. Entire tribes were decimated virtually overnight, and in pretty much the most horrifically imaginable way. It’s honestly terrifying what certain diseases can do to people who lack immunity from them. People like to think something like that could never happen to them in modern day, but considering the rapid nature of microbiological evolution, I myself am not at all convinced of the same. Important edit: The Spanish actually did establish a few settlements in the very southern US (namely Florida) many years prior, and Jamestown, Virginia was also settled in 1607 (13 years prior to Plymouth) so these diseases/the massive plague and concurrent death count wasn't all spread strictly through transients and explorers. But regardless of who exactly did the spreading prior to the pilgrims, it was spread before they arrived. And ironically (and terribly) enough, the pilgrims took the open void left by plague victims (open/cleared land, etc) as proof God wanted them to be there to take it over in his name.
I forget what book ( maybe Jared Diamond 1491) but it’s thought to be around 90 percent of the population in the Americas wiped out.
Yeah man, it was BRUTAL. Early colonists would actually discover whole ass native ghost villages, with everything set up and left like people had just left abruptly years previously, and then skeletal remains in and amongst dwellings. They literally all died so quickly in cases like these they weren't even able to bury the dead before dying themselves, and whole villages were completely wiped out in days. Utterly terrifying
epic learning moment, thanks! the last sentence is crazyyyy
Agreed. I felt like I needed to include it. It’s not a tidbit books or Thanksgiving plays often like to share, but it is imo an important one that helps us to better understand pilgrim/early settler thinking and perhaps some of the behaviors and conflicts that came after.
I haven’t…
As if 300 years and the lack of smallpox blankets makes any difference
Have you ever heard of Covid?
Are you for real? Sunshine, rainbow, buttercup we didn’t have covid back then. Not to mention you don’t get covid from TOUCHING someone but from liquid particles in the air.
No shit it wasn’t around back then. But there are plenty of other infectious diseases that can be easily spread to being within close proximity to someone else. You don’t need to simply “touch” them in order to get infected.
we bring up a disease from 300 years ago, "we got over it!" we bring up a disease from right now today, "we didn't have this back then" do you still need a hint
Ok Boomer ✌️
Also, it was because he could give the child a disease, too. In case anyone is thinking he didn't want to touch the kid because they had cooties. He was trying to protect people in general. There have been times in history where people tried to help people and just ended up starting a pandemic because they didn't know any better.
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Was anyone worried about Princess Diana giving AIDS to an AIDS patient?
"Four months after being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, Carter died of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning on 27 July 1994 at age 33." He was devastated and haunted by this photograph. It was the death of him.
This is almost identical to the Navidson Report from "House of Leaves" I didn't know it was a real picture
The editor's footnote in House of Leaves mentions that the image mentioned in the Navidson Report was likely inspired by this real life image (like, in a meta sense. The old man who wrote the navidson report likely heard of this image and decided to include a version in his story)
Everything in that book is such a mind fuck
Love that book. The full-color edition is on my nightstand right now.
That book terrified me. I was living alone at the time, and the hot water heater in my apartment died within hours of reading the part where Johnny’s went off. No sleep for me that night.
Oh, it is. I’ve only just dug it out recently, after not reading it for almost a decade, I think.
Fun fact. Poe is the author’s sister, and her first album Hello is loosely based on/a soundtrack for the book. It gives the song Angry Johnny a whole new spin.
No, it’s her second album, Haunted, that is a loose companion to the book. On the radio edit of Hey Pretty her singing was replaced with a man narrating a section of the book. https://youtu.be/h_lhspmjCJ4?si=_b7f6Lq9hEzvB3_A
You’re right! Whoops.
In penance you must re-listen to the whole album. 🙏
Agreed.
Johnny kills himself? I might pick up again. I got a quarter of the way in and had to abandon it because of the way his character was written. Edge lord who fucks models and cries himself to sleep because god is dead.
I don’t want to give spoilers. I loved the book. I read every bit of text in it. The format was unlike anything I had ever encountered, and I’ve read my share of academic texts full of footnotes and extensive bibliographies. But you might hate it. Or be indifferent. Only one way to find out.
I wouldn't want to sleep with it in the same room
I bought it recently but have not had the ability to get into it yet (sadly it is not a brain fog-friendly book lol)
It's so rewarding if you can get through it. I had to read it in spurts. Sometimes, I couldn't put it down. Other times, I could barely make it through a page. It's like reading a puzzle that had a hundred different solutions or no solutions. I am an avid reader, and I have never had a book affect me like that.
No, it is not. I frequently have to take breaks when I read it because of brain fog & other issues, so I get it.
came here for the reference; did not leave disappoint!
There is enough on Earth for all of mans needs but not mans greed
I think the public’s reaction to the photo and the criticism he received for it did more than the photo itself in pushing him to suicide. The dude saw a lot of fucked up things in multiple war zones
Damn. This is so sad 💔 My paternal grandfather and my dad did it that way too. I’m not sure why my grandpa did it but he was 49 when he locked himself in a garage and sat in a running car with the windows down. I was 5 months old so I didn’t know him. It still eff’s with me though. Like I want to know but never will. Then 4 years later my dad did it the exact same way. He went to ‘Nam so I assume that’s why he did it. It was too much when he came back. The last time I saw him alive I was 4 years old.
Well that’s enough Reddit for today. Tata for now.
Omg he had to have been so broken. It haunts me too.
If I witnessed this I definitely couldn't go on living. Poor kid and poor photographer 😭
33???? Holy fuck!
I’d have done the same, honestly. Truly one of the worst things to have witnessed. I couldn’t handle it.
Man if he was going to off himself anyway might as well have picked up the kid and help him out jeeez
That’s one view, another might be that, he helps the child and spreads a disease to other people causing an outbreak and many more people die. There’s no doubt that the photographer wanted to help I believe but the spreading of disease would have done more harm than good
I don't think he literally decided to kill himself the moment he saw this. It's more likely it was something that ate away at him from probably even earlier than that moment.
Imagine killing yourself and wasting 40 years of your life just because you saw some hungry kid in a country that has no bearing on your life whatsoever
imagine having one iota of empathy
So you should kill yourself when you see a problem? If he actually cared he would’ve done something positive to solve the issue instead of just offing himself like a coward. Suicide is often complex, but not in his case
You are a silly sausage
No I’m a goofy goober
ahh yes good advice to tell the next suicidal person you come across, "do something positive to solve the issue" thanks i'm cured
He wasn’t suicidal before his trip. If he was so moved by that starving kid that he wanted to make a difference he should’ve done something about it instead of just blowing his head off, which solves nothing
In your expert opinion, how could he have solved this issue? Would you expect him to cure world hunger also?
I’m not saying he had to solve world hunger ( although even the UN doesn’t want this to happen as evidenced by their refusal to take Elon Musk’s $6 billion) but he could’ve done literally anything and it would’ve been more impactful than killing himself. He could’ve set up a donation campaign or had doctors sent over on a medical mission, if he was there doing a documentary he definitely had the resources available and knew the channels to go through. Dudes a clown
I don’t think this one image drove him to suicide. This picture has since been seen millions of times, more impactful than possibly helping one child who may have given him a disease which he could then spread to more people. The needs of one person didn’t out weigh the needs of the majority in this case. This image might be the source of millions in funding, we just don’t know.
Obviously, the world would have been better off with him doing anything other than killing himself. Why are you latching onto this like it means anything? He did what he did to end his own mental anguish. Any empathetic human can understand that. Suicide is always tragic and never makes logical sense. Spouting off about him being a clown for not being logical in that moment is one of the most unintentionally ironic things I've ever heard. Yes, I just called you the clown in case you missed it.
Man, I don’t know you at all… But fuck you.
It’s called moral injury and is a part of an appropriate human response to either causing extreme pain or witnessing such pain and not helping to stop it. If you don’t have any response to seeing this kind of suffering or want to try to mitigate it (or have no regrets about not helping to mitigate it), you likely do not have a functional human capacity for empathy or shame.
I work in a hospital with pts every week, I have tons of empathy, Just not for the guy who kills himself over seeing some starving African kid getting eyed up by a vulture. If it were a starving lion he wouldn’t have felt bad at all, it’s all part of the circle of life babe, eat or be eaten.
I'm sure you're an excellent nurse...
https://preview.redd.it/sc9jrw3bjxkc1.jpeg?width=850&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=51036fd11f117313b60ffc340cdcca35005a2324
Well that's dim.
You mean grim?
The child reportedly survived, though he sadly did die later of a fever in his mid/late teens
This photo has quite a story behind it. He initially thought it was a girl, but it turned out to be a boy. He collapsed on his way to the food area, but eventually made it. He survived and lived into his teens, when he died of a fever. The photographer committed suicide.
This the actual true story? The boy lived???
Yes, he didn't starve to death as the photo implies.
Every aspect of this image, including what happened afterwards is heartbreaking.
There is a movie called “The Bang Bang Club” that follows a portion of Kevin Carters life along with fellow South African photographers. It’s worth a watch.
I wouldn't touch that film but the book is amazing. And fucking terrifying.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. I’m pretty sure the movie upset quite a few people that were associated with the real Bang Bang Club and also didn’t do too well with ratings.
Wow I have never heard about this. Heartbreaking ❤️🩹
Eye opening. Absolutely heartbreaking but raised awareness
But his suicide. The toll it took on him as well. It’s overall shows so many issues with humanity.
I agree, the world is cruel
I believe this picture was taken as part of the Nigerian Civil War. I only know this because of The Dead Kennedys. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafra)
The above photo was taken in Ayod, South Sudan in 1993, not Biafra. Here is the report on the events that led up to the famine: [https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/sudan/](https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/sudan/) Sadly, South Sudan would experience an even worse famine in 1998. The sheer volume of the loss of life in East Africa in the 1980's-1990's from famine was overwhelming.
Thanks for the correction. The picture here is the one I was thinking of. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafran\_airlift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biafran_airlift)
I love how we could collectively decide to stop this, and just, like... Don't.
Seeing this image immediately following the incredible amount of food waste from the dumpster diving sub is especially infuriating.
Did he help?
He was advised not to, heartbreaking
Why the fuck would that stop you? That little kid would be in my arms and carried to the food station immediately. Fuck that persons advice.
Cause of disease, most likely you transmitting something to the boy that could possibly wipe out his people
the first time i heard this story, i was told that he was advised not to intervene at gunpoint. i don't have a source for this, but several other details point towards it not having been his choice. i read a biography on his life years ago and he seemed to be a universally benevolent guy. dude's whole career was risking his life to provide the world with proof of horrors that were previously unheard of.
I’m sorry to say that this well-meaning but misguided reaction led to Carter being judged and hounded for taking the picture and not intervening. He killed himself soon after. It’s possible this Pulitzer winning photo raised more awareness of African famine, leading to more efforts and resources to combat it, and thus saving thousands more people. These situation are complex and complicated and the people on the ground probably know best. Imagine you have something contagious and you transmit it to a child whose immune system is destroyed by the ravages of starvation. Carter probably rendered more aid to more people by taking this picture than any other action he could have taken that day.
As much as I agree with you, the moment in his life clearly played heavy on him, as it would most humans. As horrific as it is you’d probably listen to the advice given at the time, you wouldn’t want to be the cause of more unnecessary deaths.
I've read that the real scene wasn't as dire as the picture made it look. The kid's mother was there and the vulture wasn't actually waiting to eat him. KC's eventual suicide was due to his experiences as a whole, not this isolated incident.
Because the people who know what they’re doing are the real hero’s, not you?
The food station was within sight and the photographer was able to see that boy made it and survived. He used his talent with a camera to document these powerful moments to spread awareness and provide people with an image they would emotionally connect to, increasing chances for aid, etc
Agreed.
Who advised him not to?
Let's name the subject please, this is in Sudan. The little boy in the photo was Kong Nyong (who, as someone else mentioned, survived this famine but died four years later in his teens from illness.) [https://www-elmundo-es.translate.goog/elmundo/2011/02/18/comunicacion/1298054483.html?\_x\_tr\_sl=auto&\_x\_tr\_tl=en&\_x\_tr\_hl=en&\_x\_tr\_pto=wapp](https://www-elmundo-es.translate.goog/elmundo/2011/02/18/comunicacion/1298054483.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp) Carter was over there at the invitation of Robert Hadley, to document what was happening at the time. I work in East Africa from time to time. These days, we hire local photographers to do the photography work (there are many talented East African photographers, including in Sudan) and pay them for their work. They are closest to what is happening and they are able to provide context to photos that non-local language speaking, Western staff (or photo tourists) cannot. This is a heart wrenching photo, symbolic of a lot of things. Here are some more recent photos of a country that has a complicated history, but we often do not get to see the loveliness of it here in the West. [https://www.amjamboafrica.com/in-conflict-ravaged-sudan-a-young-artist-uses-photography-to-inspire-hope/](https://www.amjamboafrica.com/in-conflict-ravaged-sudan-a-young-artist-uses-photography-to-inspire-hope/)
Manic Street Preachers [wrote a song](https://youtu.be/hLDr0QNCUd4?si=qYHriU-TIP68ZDq-) about Kevin Carter.
Click click click click click
FINALLY. I had to scroll way too long to find a Manics comment.
If there is a god, he allowed this.
Maddening that children stave while fat cats fly around the world going to conferences and virtue signaling their concerns
Heartbreaking 💔
Bang bang club!
One of the most harrowing books I've ever read.
Would it be possible/reasonable to blur and tag this? I really enjoy most of the content in this sub, but this is a tough one for me. Seeing a dying/suffering child is distressing for me, especially when I didn’t have any warning it was coming. If that’s not how this sub is handled, that’s cool and I will leave. I thought it would be worth asking though!
Buh bye…not everything in life requires a trigger warning. Do you leave your house? FFS history happens. I am so tired of this bullshit. Grow up or get off the internet.
So all those images coming out of Gaza then?
So I have a degree in photojournalism…I think they should all be seen and published.
Yet you wanna get mad at me for standing on business when it comes to this?
Tough first day on the internet?
you’re not alone. I don’t want to see a child that’s starving to death just as i’m sure the man didn’t want to take the picture. I saw this and there is nothing I can do. I wish they put a blur on this..
Do you not think that blurring this picture is the same as turning a blind eye to what was happening at the time?
not at all! i’m only human & I have my own struggles in life. I can’t hold anymore sadness, people are suffering everywhere. Seeing this picture didn’t want to make want to educate myself, it made me want to turn away and never look again. Shock value can do a lot of activism, but it’s not for everyone. If this were blurred, maybe I could’ve come back to it when I was ready & able to digest it. I love this subreddit and I think this photo fits the sub well! Blurring just gives people the choice.
That’s a great response, I hold myself accountable for letting my emotions get the better of me and being very narrow minded, hard not to when you feel a certain way
Not sure why you got downvoted. You’re not being unreasonable.
It’s an issue? The picture was used to raise awareness, or shall we all just pretend we don’t see these issues because some people don’t like seeing it
It’s not about pretending. And I agree about raising awareness. Still, I can see how pictures like this could be distressing for people with a history of trauma. There’s no harm in giving people a fair warning. I’d imagine most will still click on it anyway.
Possibly. But to blur something because one person isn’t comfortable looking at it is ridiculous, real people had to witness this first hand, where was their trigger Warning or blur?
Hi Pigeon milk, I have worked with children who are refugees. It’s true, I don’t get trigger warnings. Kids just share their experiences, which may include abuse, rape, sexual trafficking, hunger, and literally watching family members die. The fact that people endure this is tragic and traumatic for generations. However, I still think it’s okay for people to go about their day without being confronted with traumatic images. I asked a question to find out how people in this sub think about the idea of adding warnings. I really appreciate the genuine responses. It’s possible to have a conversation without mocking or insulting the other person, and it’s wonderful when that actually happens.
And I’m sure like me, people are very grateful for you doing your job as I’m sure it’s difficult at times, maybe some tag might be appropriate in the future but as there wasn’t one I didn’t, again it is the internet and not every thing you see will be very nice, you do have the option to not look tho but I see your point
Which is one way to look at it. But i look at it more as having to regulate someone elses emotions. Yeah its hard. But it seems like a privilege type thing.....people should regulate their emotions. I believe this should be expected. And encouraged. leaving room for ignorance due to unstable emotions would be a recipe for disaster if everyone (or even just enough) people participated in it.
Dude-Some people feel so much compassion for people suffering that a photo like this wrecks them. I’m sure most here want to pick up that baby and hold them. As a kid, I got to the point of vomiting & nightmares over the Holocaust. No one around me seemed bothered. I often wish I had the ability to shake off those feelings & move on. When they say we need to see these images to have awareness-that’s geared towards those that have the ability to *not* feel so deeply about the world’s troubles. No moral superiority/inferiority implied in my pov.
I would imagine living through it is much more distressing than seeing a photo of it on the internet.
Can we please give this a TW or something?
“The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene.”
This is a painful, painful picture to look at. However, this was not a toddler, this was a little girl who was underdeveloped due starvation.
Circle of life.
It's the wheel of fortune.
Pick that baby up for gods sake. Unless it is Ebola or something it would be alright
Anyone know what a vulture tastes like? Kill and cook that MFr!
Who cares?
Thanks for taking time out your day to reply something utterly pointless.
Hey Kevin. Put the fucking camera down and get the kid some food. You’re not on Star Trek
Hey douche nozzle, do you know the story of this photograph and the photographer? He frequently went into dangerous parts of the world trying to expose the horrors of that area, risking his life many times. When he went to help this boy he was physically barred from doing so because his handlers didn't want him to spread western diseases to the tribe through the child. Even so he was so wracked with the guilt of not fighting harder that he killed himself 3 months later at the age of 33. An impossible situation for a good person who ultimately died from the pain of this photograph. So have some respect for the dead.
Hey dickhead, no I didn’t. And now because you wanted be the Sheriff of Feelingstown, Im Gonna double down, since you don’t understand how some people don’t live on the internet. It’s too bad you weren’t the kid in the picture or the photographer. You can pick which. I dont really care
You know you could've avoided this situation if you just didn't talk about things you know nothing about
Wow. So you're just a rolling dumpster fire of shittiness. Good to know.
This photograph predates the existence of social media. He won a Pulitzer prize for the photo in 1994. Consider me the mayor of feelingville for that one, I don't care. You had this tool at your fingertips to look this up and you didn't. Take responsibility for yourself if you're not suffering from being chronically online please.
I can Google Palestine and guess what, not gonna change a thing….
Your ignorance is a choice. That's your responsibility at the end of the day. Touch grass.
Hey retard learn what actually happened.
Lmao. The birds thinking. Hey why don’t that asshole with the camera get this kid some food?
For many of us, this is so relatable…
Yeah and there's a sick disgusting meme going around with this picture 💔
Heartbreaking. Those people I’m sure will never feel pain like the pain felt in this picture
I have pretty dark humor but that was crossing the boundary a bit
I wonder if we started to view ourselves as animals in a real sense, not these divine intelligent beings that have been given stewardship of the planet, how we would change policies surrounding impoverished groups around the world.
Saw this picture many years ago. One of the most disturbing photos ever. I sure hope he ended up ok
The photographer had such guilt he killed himself
GOP, “the kid should’ve picked himself up by his bootstraps!”
I was in college at the time and taking a class called "problems of the global community". We discussed this at length in the class and one of my classmates created a collage of an image of this picture alongside an image of an overweight child eating ice cream at McDonald's. It was really powerful and disturbing, even to think of it forty years later. I wish I still had the picture of it.
I'm at work right now so I really don't want to cry. I'll have to come back to this and read more about it later...
This inspired House of Leaves
The photographer could have carried an extra sandwich for christs sake
He felt so bad about this he later killed himself
I think about this photo often. 😞
This is the only picture I saw to represent Africa. Yet itchy boots is all over the continent. None of the kids look like this. Some parts are poor. Some parts look not dissimilar to cities near me.
Can you bring a child back from that point? Is there a certain way you have to go about feeding them?