An Overwhelming Astonishment

Seeing this picture couple years ago, while I was a senior high school student, I could not describe how great depressions struck me at that time. The photo was taken by Kevin Carter, a South African photographer who made his trip to Sudan in Africa, 1994, when the country was suffered by famine. The slender girl in this picture stopped to take a break while she was struggling to the food center, but she did not notice that there was a greedy vulture standing in front of her, waiting for her dying, so that it could eat her bloody flesh. He then sold this photo to The New York Times and the whole world was extremely shocked by this sensational impression. Moreover, he had won The Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor of photojournalism, by the hunting photograph. But this honor caused him under many criticisms that he just photo shooting, and not helping the helpless little girl. According to the newspaper in Florida said this of Carter, “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.” Besides, there were hundreds of people contacted The New York Times to ask whether the little girl survived or not. But the answer was unknown, neither the photographer himself. Under these great criticisms of social pressures, Carter committed suicide due to depression after he won The Pulitzer Prize three months later. After read the story of this photo, I kept thinking and questioning myself, “What is the meaning of our existence, and what is the exactly value of life we are pursuing for?” “Would I save the little girl or just photographing if I were Carter?” The moral issues are still confusing me and I cannot figure it out even now. And something must be missing or forgetting in today’s society. Is that “compassion” or “sympathy”? Is that “love” or “kindness”? There are many paradoxical thoughts come up to me and I am still trying to find the answers of truth. However, I do know some meanings behind this picture, which are “be thankful”, “be grateful”, and “be kind” to things or people around us.

Written by William (371 words)