M14 final

 

Kevin Carter and his life as a photojournalist first started out in 1983 where initially he was a sports photojournalist, in short time after he started working for Johannesburg Star which propelled his career into the political scene. When starting this position he become a frontline photographer, meaning up close and personal with most of the assignments photographed. Coming fromSouth Africa, he was a member of the Bang-Bang club which was a group of photographers that worked around and captured the violent outcomes of apartheid based clashes. 

Photo of Kevin Carter 

Unable to find Photographer Credit

Carter worked in the photojournalist industry for a majority of the 80s and early 90s before his unexpected demise. Heavily focusing his work on the South African Apartheid during this era of socio-political movement. Being in this field during this era was by no means safe either, Kevin and his other colleagues at the Bang-Bang club were constantly putting themselves in danger, whether it be at a protest, riot, civil war, or in the midst of a famine. These Photojournalists just like Kevin were all putting life at risk for the awareness and potential greater good of others. 

Photo of Bang-Bang club colleague by Kevin Carter

It seemed many things motivated the Photojournalist including justice, truth, integrity, and equality, but why did these things move him to keep going and putting his life in danger. He cared a lot about local issues such as the apartheid in South Africa, he wanted people to see harsh realities of situations is high poverty or bad economic zones of the world, especially in Africa. Another example of him wanting people to see these harsh realities was some of his work in Sudan, documenting and posting very graphic content of everyday life and occurrences as an effect of the widespread famine that was happening at the time. He believed 'hard to look at' photographs made more of a difference and gained a better response from the international community.

Photo by Kevin Carter in Sudan of Famine

 Kevin being one of the more modern famous photojournalists had a decent amount of equipment around that could be picked from. I was unable to find a 'reliable' source for this information, public speculation seems to however conclude that he used a Leica M3 or Nikon F3. Based on some digging on what both cameras look like and photographs of Kevin Carter in action, it seems like his pick is the Nikon F3. In the photograph below you see Kevin doing some work in the field, the camera he is holding looks almost identical to the Nikon F3 which I hyperlinked along with the Leica M3. Luckily for Carter, technology didn't necessarily affect his craft in a negative way. 

Photo of Kevin Carter working in field

Unable to find Photographer Credit

Believing in what he did, Kevin encountered many ethical and personal dilemmas about what he was doing and what he was seeing. Some of the situations Kevin was in for his process of documenting events was a huge toll on his mental well being, he saw so many examples of the true definition of pain and suffering. Regardless of how much positive impact you are making, seeing all of that emotion is bound to affect someone hugely. One example of this was one time he was working in Sudan and he witnessed a Sudanese girl and he had to pick between documentation or interference, some degraded Carter due to taking the photograph instead of helping her. All of this emotional turmoil would keep building until finally a breaking point. Below photographed is a member of the Neo-Nazi Afrikaner movement begging for his life, taking a picture like this versus deciding to move on or even help is heavy burden to bear. 

Photo by Kevin Carter taken in Bophuthatswana

Working in a field like photojournalism, people are bound to have many different biases displayed in what their work is, Kevin is a great example for this philosophy. Being from South Africa, Kevin was heavily affected all his early life by the constant racial violence and the political conflict in his surrounding area. His work being a large percentage of documenting the apartheid violence in South Africa shows where his biases as a photographer lie. Another bias that can be claimed is that the truth must be told regardless of how hard it may be to stomach. Proved again in his work, Carter did not have very friendly, happy photographs, many of them classified as hard to look at by some. Below pictured is an example of one of these hard to look at photographs from Carter. 

Photo by Kevin Carter taken in South Africa of medics attending wounded 

Being a well respected photojournalist, you can't just take pictures without any thought behind how you frame it and what is captured. Kevin Carter knew how to send a message more efficiently with his framing, each photo well thought out and pictured carefully for the full effect. In photograph 1 the vibrant color differences draw equal attention to all frames of the picture. The red and blue shirts on both sides puts emphasis  on whatever taking place being a group action. In photograph 2, the perspective of the camera adds a different thinking for what is going on in the picture, it almost adds a level of suspense to what is going on. Carter capitalizes on a perfect picture opportunity to send a message about what these people have to go through everyday. Photograph 3 Carter decides to go up close and focus in on the central idea, the depth of field aspect he used is great. He didn't want any focus off of the central idea, he felt using the close depth of field to his advantage would send his message most effectively. Lastly photograph 4 uses a heavy amount of emotion, the picture clearly shows the expression on the persons face. You can see the rush he is in and how he is feeling, it looks of pure fear and distress. All photographs from and taken by Kevin Carter. 

Kevin Carter had a huge impact on photojournalism and the society of his day and age, many of the photographs he captured were hugely effective in drawing attention and mass awareness about whatever issue at hand. His award winning Vulture picture attracted millions of views and interactions, its obvious why as well. Very graphic picture showing a malnourished child being stalked and looked at by a vulture nearby. "Vulture and the Little Girl" was published by The New York Times in 1993 and caused instant controversy. Sparking massive debates at the global scale this photograph also won a Pulitzer award for how impactful and meaningful this photograph is, initially thought to be a girl ended up being a girl, misidentified due to how malnourished he truly is. Going through this process was very mentally draining for Kevin Carter, on top of this, all of the backlash he received from the public about the harshness of the photo he committed suicide. It was 4 months after the photograph was taken.  

Photo taken by Kevin Carter 

Carter was looked at many different ways by peers in the photojournalist community and the general public as well, this happened due to his extensive detail in photographs of graphic scenes. His peers mostly respected and admired him, they thought he was always willing to put his safety or public image on the line in order to document and spread the truth no matter how brutal. Their respect towards him was shown by always accompanying him on these dangerous journeys for photography, with every pro there is usually a con and with here there is no exception. The dangerous and brutal scenes that were captured by Carter and his colleagues definitely drew attention but it wasn't all good, much of the public did not approve of. Some people believed his graphic and upfront images were too far and he should be helping physically instead of documenting it and standing by. I feel being a photojournalist if you are a good one, this should be how it is, you should be documenting things that spark controversy. The truth is sometimes hard, people need to accept this rather than pretend everything is perfect. I heavily respect Kevin Carter.  

Photo of Kevin Carter by Guy Adams working in the field together during a violent uprise

I feel this connects very well with my major because Kevin and me both have the desire to know the truth in common, it may not be the same kind of truth but I think when in a field of science you are constantly studying and trying to discover new truths. Kevin was always going around to different politic conflicts that he was passionate about and tried to find out the truth about these situations. Everyone is working to try and find their own truth everyday, I think my biology major isn't as different as Kevin Carter's career goal as some may initially think.