December 12, 2007

Kevin Carter Picture


In the Cohen article on page 195 he mentions a picture by the photographer Kevin Carter. I didn't recall actually ever seeing this picture so I decided to Google it. Not to my surprise, the picture is definitely disturbing and certainly offsets the urge to do something to help this child. This photo went onto to win a Pulitzer Prize and was hailed because of its ability to stir emotion to help the little girl. I was wondering what everyone thought about this picture vs the ones that Medea posted earlier. Is it the vulture or the position of this child? Or maybe it is just that face that it is a child and the realization of her death is inevitable? What makes this different than the rest?

1 comment:

Juli said...

Perhaps it is about recognizing the fearlessness in the photographer.

If you think about it, you want to turn away, you want to possibly call others to action, you want to make some sort of statement. But in this case, is it because he was not afraid to do this that he leads by example for the rest of us and that is why he deserves an award?

And again, he captures his courage, and problematically the strife of others, in an aesthically pleasing shot. Not in the sense of what it is conveying. In this case, it is about the lighting, the angle, etc. While the message it is portraying is one where we might feel concern, and maybe even charge he is using this for his gain, the way it is shot captures nature's grace and demise in one image. It shows how Mother Nature has not provided for some (the girl) and yet it also providing for another (the vulture).

And while he is using a horrible event to shoot an aesthically pleasing image techinically speaking, he was not afraid to do it. Perhaps that is what they ultimately wanted to recognize.