Cold picture (this cold picture that sensationalized the world)

Wen/Kuaizai Feng

This is a sensational news photo, which was published in The New York Times in March 1993. The content of the photo is cruel: on the arid land of Africa, a skinny and starving African child is lying on the ground, and a vulture is waiting behind him.

Photo: The world-famous news photo "Vultures and Little Girls"

The photo was taken in the Republic of South Sudan in East Africa. The photographer is kevin carter, a 33-year-old South African photojournalist.

Carter was born in a white middle-class family in South Africa, and he was dissatisfied with the local apartheid system since he was a child. When serving in the army, he was beaten by many white soldiers for protecting a black man. At the age of 23, Carter decided to be a war news photographer and contribute to racial equality.

Photo: Carter's life photo

Photo: Carter is at work

In 1993, there was a great famine in South Sudan, and the United Nations Operation Lifeline Sudan provided Carter and his companion Silva with a job opportunity: reporting the famine in South Sudan and helping this small country get more aid from the world.

Carter is enthusiastic about this trip and has made careful preparations. After obtaining the consent of the rebel leader in the control area, in March 1993, he and Silva landed in a small village by light plane, waiting for the arrival of food aid from the United Nations.

Picture: African villages during the Great Famine

Hungry villagers gathered at the entrance of the village to wait for cargo planes, and mothers left their children in the nearby sand. During this period, Carter found the skinny child in the photo. When he was kneeling on the ground to shoot, he accidentally found a vulture behind him, so he adjusted his angle and photographed both the vulture and the little girl.

He shot for 2 minutes, and took many photos without angles. After shooting, he found Silva and said excitedly, "You won't believe what I took! I photographed a little girl and a vulture! "

Photo: Vultures under Carter's lens

Carter named his work Hungry Sudan, which shocked the world after it was published in The New York Times that month. For a time, the disaster in South Sudan became the focus of the world. A month later, Carter won the Pulitzer Prize (the highest news award in the United States) for this news photo, but the comments that followed made him unexpected: countless comments cursed the "cold-blooded" photographer and scolded him for not helping the poor little girl!

Photo: Carter has been pushed to the forefront of public opinion

An American media comment is even more sharply criticized: this is an award-winning photo of stepping on the body of a little girl. In journalism classes in some countries, this photo is regarded as a negative textbook of "journalistic ethics".

Carter is very wronged.

In fact, Carter told his companions at that time that he drove away the vultures after taking photos, and the little girl stood up and hobbled along, but her whereabouts were unclear. In the annotation of the photo, he suggested that the little girl was wearing a bracelet issued by the United Nations relief organization, and someone would come to help her.

Picture: The little girl is wearing a bracelet

But the people who criticize with words ignore these things. They only believe what they believe.

In 211, the father of the "little girl" in the photo was finally found by the media. He clarified that the "little girl" was actually a boy named Kong Nyong, who had been cared for by the United Nations food aid station until he died of a high fever in 27.

The "poor little girl" lived until 27, but the "cold-blooded photographer" only lived until 1994.

The life of a war photographer is unimaginable hardship and danger. Seeing fights, wars and killings every day has an unparalleled psychological impact on people. Carter often smokes cocaine at work because it helps him cope with his occupational terror. Take the trip to South Sudan as an example. Carter took photos under the surveillance of a group of armed rebels. Ordinary people can't imagine the pressure.

Picture: Carter was under armed surveillance when he was filming

Picture: Carter was under armed surveillance when he was filming

He took a photo that could go down in history and won the highest photojournalism award, but Carter suffered a double blow. First, he was scolded endlessly. Second, his good friend was shot in a shoot when he was accepting the award. This was a great blow to Carter, and he thought he should take the bullet himself.

Photo: Carter always risks his life in his daily work.

Photo: Carter in riot photography, with a black man behind him holding a garbage can cover the stone.

Carter was finally crushed.

On the night of July 27th, 1994, Carter committed suicide with carbon monoxide in his car in Johannesburg, South Africa. He connected a hose to the exhaust pipe of the car and discharged the exhaust gas into the car. He left a note on his seat: "I'm really sorry, the pain of life far exceeds the joy." I am troubled by the vivid memories of life-and-death killings and corpses, anger and pain ... "

Photo: A photographer worthy of respect by the world

Carter is a respectable good man, and the whole world owes this reporter an apology. He is recording some of the most terrible corners in the world. He left an indelible great photo for the world, but left countless pressures and accusations for himself.

years later, Carter's daughter painfully recalled, "My father was the little girl, and the public accused the vulture."