The hungry little girl crouched on the way to get food, and a vulture smelled the wind and stopped behind the little girl. A photographer captured the scene and won an industry award, but two months later, the photographer ended his life...
In 1993, photographer Kevin and his friend Sival boarded a United Nations helicopter delivering food to a relief station in northern Sudan, where they were allowed to take pictures within 30 minutes of unloading the food. After the plane landed, they saw many hungry people who were about to starve to death, and Kevin was shocked by the scene in front of him, thinking of slowing in the bushes, just at this moment, he heard the sobbing sound of gossamer, and looking at the sound, he found a little girl slowly and hard crawling to the food relief station.
Out of the professionalism of the photographer, he quickly crouched down and raised the camera, just at this moment, a vulture landed behind the little girl, and Kevin quickly pressed the shutter. After taking the photo, he chased away the vulture, gave the little girl a little dry food and drinking water with him, saw her climb to the relief station, and then took the plane to leave.
Titled "Hungry Sudan," which reflects the horrors of Sudan's famine caused by civil war, it has attracted the attention of countries around the world, and it has even changed the policy of the United States, which has provided a lot of humanitarian assistance and saved many lives.
This photo has a shocking power and has attracted a lot of attention. In May 1994, for Hungry Sudan, Kevin won America Magazine Photo of the Year and the Pulitzer Prize for Close-Up Photography in Journalism, dubbed the "Oscar of Journalism," with a high gold content.
As the photo was awarded, so did the voices of doubt and condemnation, and many people believed that Kevin lacked humanitarian spirit and only cared about taking pictures instead of rescuing the poor child. Although Kevin explained the situation below the photo, explaining that there was no one around the little girl at that time, her mother was not far away to collect food, and the little girl also had a bracelet issued by the United Nations food station, indicating that the little girl was receiving humanitarian protection.
In addition, United Nations personnel have repeatedly warned them not to touch the bodies of refugees so as not to be infected with the disease. Immediately after taking the pictures, he gave his food and water to the little girl and watched her climb to the relief station before leaving.
However, public opinion is fierce, the public is only willing to believe what they are willing to believe, and their condemnation of Kevin has not diminished. Finally, Kevin was overwhelmed, and on July 27, 1994, two months after winning the award, he drove to a place where he used to play for an hour in Johannesburg and ended his life with car exhaust. At that time, he was just 33 years old, and it was a beautiful year.
He left a note that read:
"I was haunted by the vivid memories of killings, corpses, anger, pain, hunger, wounded children, happy lunatics... Really, really sorry everyone, the pain of life far exceeds the level of joy. ”
In fact, Kevin was a humanitarian, born in 1960 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to middle-class white parents, when South Africa was in segregation, and Kevin often complained about black people. When he grew up and served in the military, he was also ostensibly beaten and seriously injured by the conspiracy because he sympathized with black people and was excluded by his comrades.
After retiring from the military, he became exposed to photography and worked for the Johannesburg division of Time Magazine. Wherever there is war, where there is disaster, they will go to take pictures and let the world know the real situation in these places. He wanted to use photographs to expose injustice, misery, and suffering in the world, arouse people's attention, and then change the situation in the affected areas.
In fact, he did. It was Kevin's photographs that prevented a powerful country like the United States from staying out of the way and provided Sudan with a lot of humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, he later paid the price with his life.
Kevin's daughter, when she was 16 years old, said in an interview, "I think that dad is actually the kid who can't crawl, and the whole world is the vulture!" ”
The first time I heard this story was in a journalism class at the university, and I was very sad at the time. Later, every time I heard this story, I couldn't help but feel sad.
Kevin Carter, such a kind and conscientious humanitarian, was forced to end his life by public opinion. What's wrong with him? He took the picture and it was clear that he had saved more people, and the little girl in the photo was also rescued at that time.
