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10 min read · Feb 6, 2022
“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
Wars have been destroying the core base of humanity by destroying human generations, culture and values since time immemorial and yet nations and civilizations succumb to it without even a trace of guilt and shame. They fight over religion, borders and materialistic ambitions and things of little value rather than embracing all-inclusive concepts of altruism, the overall well-being of humans and beyond. Wars are indeed no less than a mockery of much-talked concepts like equality, inclusivity and a sense of belonging. The repercussion of any war is never positive as the psychological effect of wars never goes away from the mind of survivors’ crippling the well-being of their souls forever. The seeds of fear and mistrust that are sown during one war further act as a foundation for the next war.
War photojournalism continues to play a pivot role when it comes to making the world aware of the plights of the war-affected people, communities and nations. There have been many fearless war photo journalists’ who have gone the extra mile in capturing the most authentic images depicting the heart-rending consequences of war and Kevin Carter was certainly one of them.
Kevin Carter: A Brief Introduction
A South African photojournalist, Kevin Carter was born on 13th September 1960 and ended his life on 27th July 1994. In 1994, he received the “Pulitzer Prize” for his photo-journalism through which he did strive to depict the ghastly famine that engulfed Sudan in 1994. Kevin Carter’s contribution in highlighting the brutality of apartheid did not go unnoticed. There came a time when it became unsafe for the white photojournalists to go to the South African townships alone. To minimize the dangers, Carter teamed up with three other friends named Ken Oosterbroek, Joao Silva and Greg Marinovich. The four eventually went on to become famous with the name of the “the Bang-Bang Club”. In 2010, a movie named “Bang-Bang Club” was made on the story of his real life. The role of protagonist was played by Taylor Kitsch.
Crossing That Bridge between Life and Death
At times, “A thousand words fail to leave the deep impression as done by one picture”. History is filled with countless examples when a single powerful image helped people to come together to channel their collective rage towards an action to accomplish a common cause. Such a rage was created by one of the most soul-stirring images of its time clicked by Kevin Carter named “Vulture and the little girl”. Kevin Carter was shot to fame soon after this controversial image was published by New York Times. This image depicted an utterly malnourished Sudanese little girl who seemed to collapse out of starvation before reaching a UN feeding centre and a vulture is waiting desperately nearby to feed on her lifeless body. However, in 2011, the father of the child who was depicted in the image revealed that it was a boy named Kong Nyong. Unfortunately neither the child survived nor Kevin Carter.
Destiny Rising Turned Into Last Strike To Glory
“Vulture and the little girl” sent ripples throughout the world because of its controversial impression. Viewers of this image were indulged in speculation related to the fate of the little starving girl. They wondered that did the vulture feast on her or she made it out of there alive. The whole suspense related to her fate only went on to grow bigger and bigger with time. Out of the same, worldwide people began approaching Carter and New York Times to learn about the fate of the little girl. Unfortunately, “Vulture and the little girl” image was going to turn Kevin Carter’s life 360 degrees which Carter could not see it coming. This image jeopardized Carter’s image as a human. People from all walks of life started seeking answers to their several questions from Carter revolving around his conscience. They were hell-bent to know whether Carter helped her to reach the UN feeding centre or no out of humanitarian grounds or no or he simply clicked the image and fled. What started of curiosity once turned into confrontation only to grow more and more intense to become something as serious as an accusation? The St Petersburg Times (Florida) took the entire accusation to a next level by classicizing him saying, “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.
A War Photojournalist’s Gloom
Undeniably “Vulture and the little girl” despite being merely an image became successful in depicting the outcome of the Southern Sudan famine caused by war and flood that was further made worse by drought and diseases. While for the world, this was just one impactful image that they were soon going to forget eventually, for Carter, it disrupted his entire world in a multitude of ways. After winning the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, the entire elation of professional accomplishment was short-lived. His family and close friends had already sensed his inner fracas out of seeing people dying on the day to day basis due to hunger, killing, torture, war and whatnot. Even Kevin Carter dropped subtle hints related to his mental health after clicking this photograph, He stated that he “lit a cigarette, talked to God and cried” during one of his interviews. Such unanticipated encounters with the hunger, war and famine did suffice for him to mull over the fate of Sudanese children who were left to struggle with the hunger only to embrace death in the process. Kevin Carter indeed did try to numb his emotions selectively but in due process, he failed to recognize that when someone tries to numb the hurtful emotions, he ends up numbing positive emotions as well.
Marshes of Delusions
Winning the Pulitzer Prize was nothing but a stroke of luck as per the opinion of the majority of the people. People did not spare Kevin even after his death by speculating about the reasons that led him to take such a drastic step. A few opined that it was a shame that eventually compelled Kevin Carter to contemplate suicide while a few felt it was a pang of sheer guilt out of which he took such a devastating step. Then there are was a clan of people who opined that both emotions when merged compelled Kevin Carter to pursue the unimaginable drastic step. The guilt was already there perhaps in the latent mode in multiple layers beneath his psyche. The guilt for earning the Pulitzer Prize, gaining popularity out of showcasing human crisis in the form encompassing poverty, hunger, grief, killing, brutal torturing and beyond was too much to handle for him. The same eventually started making him feel ashamed for what he felt he was as a person or what he was compelled to become as a person which he was not. The entire aftermath of Guilt V/s Shame eventually went on to become more complex than a cobweb. If it would have had remained restrained till guilt, perhaps, he would have had been alive by today. It was the involvement of shame that made the entire existing emotional turmoil more destructive. It went on to erode his whole sense of worth and fueled disengagement.
Fragmented Orbit of Cloaked Emotions
People who took no time in judging Kevin Carter’s morality did not take into account the nasty wars, scarcity of resources, unkind forces of nature, the ulterior motives of those who promoted war, governments that supported war and more. If Carter was held responsible for the gloomy fate of the girl in a speculative manner, who should be held responsible for the fate of Alan Kurdi (3-Year-old Syrian kid) whose lifeless body was being found on the shore of a Turkish beach in 2015. What exactly changed between 1993 to 2015? Did we become slightly more human? All across the world, still, countless people continue to lose life in an attempt to seek shelter in safe countries. This is where people made mistakes in the case of Kevin Carter. They shifted their focus towards Carter’s actions rather than focusing on the real concerns integrating War, Poverty, and the Inaccessibility of resources, Security, and more. They also failed to acknowledge the Government’s inability to fix these issues and the apathy of resourceful charitable worldwide organizations in mitigating the consequences’ born out of war.
Inner War With Suspended Emotions
After losing his colleague and friend Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter succumbed to a substance abuse problem. From Cocaine to Alcohol to Marijuana, he did strive to calm his negative emotions that were getting louder day by day. Especially, smoking Marijuana was an important part of Carter’s stressed lifestyle as it made him relieve his myriad stresses. His substance abuse problem began to get worse with time only developing more and more issues in his love relationship. Messing up at work became a recurrent affair for him due to his disturbed mental health that only went on to become worse after quitting Weekly Mail to pursue free-lance photojournalist. This decision of him led him to experience terrible job insecurity combined with no death benefits and no health insurance. The death of his dear friend Oosterbroek was the final nail in the coffin in the context of his already deteriorating mental health. Ken Oosterbroek was being shot in Tokoza while covering violence.
Transitions of Delicate Sentimentality
The vivid horrendous painful experiences experienced by Kevin Carter were gradually turning into traumatic memories challenging the ethical and moral grounds of Kevin Carter. While clicking pictures during a shoot-out, he stated “I had to think visually. I am zooming in on a tight shot of the dead guy and a splash of red. Going into his khaki uniform in a pool of blood in the sand. The dead man’s face is slightly grey. You are making a visual here. But inside something is screaming, ‘My God.’ But it is time to work. Deal with the rest later. If you can’t do it, get out of the game.” After going through his thought-provoking words, one can imagine how complicated it was becoming for him to continue with such mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting work.
Kevin Carter’s suicide imparts an idea of somebody’s mind that has been succumbed to dark thoughts perhaps involving nightmares too. Experiencing or merely witnessing an atrocious tragedy no matter what kind be it watching a murder, wounded children, starvation, execution and more does not allow a person to resume normalcy in the context of mental health. An individual is indeed changed forever. His untimely death also puts a question mark on the level of human sensitivity.
Final Departure to the Safe Haven
On an unfortunate day in 1994 on 27th July, shame finally prevailed over all other emotions. He drove to Parkmore close to the Field and Study Center where he once lived to perhaps revive his fond childhood memories for one last time. He attached a garden hose with the help of a silver gaffer tape to the exhaust pipe of a pickup truck and died of Carbon monoxide poisoning. He left his suicide note beneath a knapsack on the passenger seat that read
“I’m really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist… I am depressed… without a phone… money for rent … money for child support… money for debts… money!!!… I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain… of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners… I have gone to join Ken [recently deceased colleague Ken Oosterbroek] if I am that lucky”.
Wish You Were Still Alive
Many friends of Carter confessed that at one point in time, Carter became vocal about his suicidal thoughts. This should not have had been taken lightly neither by his friends nor his family. If anyone around us talks about contemplating suicide, it should be considered as an alarming signal. We as responsible and prudent human beings should strive to offer spontaneous emotional support besides encouraging them to be vocal about their emotions, feelings and thoughts. We should often check on that person. Probably by adopting this attitude, we might end up saving a few precious lives.
According to Kevin Carter’s friends, he lacked the most requisite quality of a front-line photographer that was practising detachment. He was unique in a sense of his avid involvement with the places and the people where he worked. He was indeed an intriguing blend of traits like bravery to an extent of self-destructiveness, talent, recklessness and more. It was being revealed that there was a fear of disease infection that was perhaps the reason why Carter was not supposed to touch the kid. Undeniably, his death remains one of the most horrid tragedies in the history of photojournalism. I believe that it was perhaps the judgmental attitude of people that began taking a toll on his mental health. Later on when the truth came out that the girl survived that time but lost her life to malaria a few years later. We cannot bring Kevin Carter back. He is not amongst us anymore. However, we can at least discourage brutal trolling, name-calling, shaming and beyond it cannot bring these to an end it. This gesture will perhaps pacify his soul.
“The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist.”
Don’t forget to share in the comments what’s your take on contemporary media practices and the mental health of Journalists and Photo Journalists.
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