The photo is the “Pulitzer Prize” winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan Famine. The picture depicts "stricken child" crawling towards an United Nations food camp located a kilometer away.
The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat him. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.
Three months later he committed suicide due to depression. What are your first reactions upon looking at this photo? How does this picture make you feel? Why do we have to wait for pictures like this to take action against injustice and crying need?
The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat him. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.
Three months later he committed suicide due to depression. What are your first reactions upon looking at this photo? How does this picture make you feel? Why do we have to wait for pictures like this to take action against injustice and crying need?
8 comments:
Upon seeing this picture it broke my heart. This child first of all does not even look like a person. He absolutely exhaust and I cannot help feeling horrible for him. It is obvious he has no strength left to keep going and it makes me wish he could make it to the food camp so the vulture won’t eat him. Living in America, where food is in abundance to most, it is hard to see pictures from these countries where people are suffering.
I honestly do not know why we wait for these pictures to come about in order for people to become aware of this crisis and actually do something about it. Something I can say though is that famine and dying hunger will always be a problem in these countries. This photo is from 1994 and there are still photos like this being taken today as there have been in the past. No matter how much we try and no matter how many photographs are taken, I don't believe this situation will change enough so that there aren't people dying of hunger anymore; and that is sad to me.
I found this picture to be extremely shocking and very heart breaking. I almost did not even recognize the child because of how skinny and small he is. The bird in the background really adds to the terrible bewilderment I was in when I saw this picture. First, no wonder the photographer committed suicide after taking this picture and then just simply leaving the child there. That to me is just mind blowing that anyone could just walk away from someone in that much pain and need. Second, I have to agree with Matt that it is so pathetic that pictures like these have to come into the eyes of society before anyone does anything about it. There should more action to solve these issues. This picture really just makes me sick to think about the third world countries that are still dealing with these problems every day. The help of the relief programs are either not enough or simply lacking support from their respective governments. I pray for the families in these countries and that one day their starvation will eventually end.
People all over the world do not like to see the terrible things that are happening in the world today. People in the United States are especially guilty of this. It is easier for people to just look in the opposite direction and think that something is being done about it and the situation is too bad. It is easier to think that people live the same way all over the world as the middle class does in America; that there are not worse situations than the little amount of poverty that we have in the United States. This picture of the “Stricken Child” is very shocking and is eye-opening to the situation going on in Africa. The child is skin and bones. It has obviously has not been fed in a very long time and it is hard to tell if the child is even alive. What makes this picture most disturbing is the vulture sitting in the background preying on the small child. Emotion is instantly felt when viewing this photograph, feelings of sadness and disgust are among the first. How can the fortunate countries of the world allow this terrible famine and disease occur around the world? Can events like these be stopped if people would stop looking the other way and aid the countries that are most in need? This photograph is another example of people looking the other direction until the truth is exposed.
When I saw this photograph, my heart dropped in to my stomach. This photo actually has made me depressed just from looking at it. People always hear about things like this, but seeing it really changes your attitude about it. People feel that as long as it isn’t affecting them it is irrelevant. It goes back to that saying “Out of sight, out of mind”. People are so selfish and so consumed by their own life that they don’t care what is happening half way across the world. Only when people see images like this, do they start to care about something other than themselves. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I am the same way. That is why people wait for pictures like this to take action against injustice.
This isn't the first time that I have seen this image, yet everytime I see it I get that same feeling. I feel so helpless and just wish that I could help that poor child. I don't know why we wait until images like this come out before we do anything, maybe it's because we try to avoid the issue or to turn a blind eye, yet when an image likes this appears in the public there is no longer a way of ignoring the issue. I can see how the image affected the photographer, the child causes an overwhelming sense of sadness and helplessness. A child should never be put in this situation and when images of such cases come out they should never be ignored. It's sad that there are children suffering like this, but I think that it is a good thing that images like this come into the public eye because they shouldn't be ignored; the images act as a voice for the those helpless children. Just seeing that child shows how pathetic some of our daily issues are and that we should be so thankful for what we have.
Well when I first saw this picture, I thought that the young child was a dog. Upon further observation however, I realized just how dramatic this picture is. I knew that there was a lack of food in developing countries, but in no way did I think it could be this bad. The vulture in the picture is just sitting there waiting on what it thinks to be a piece of meat, while the child lies helpless. What a horrible situation. While this picture does more than a great job of detailing a very poor situation, something more needs to be done. I never really think about how bad things are in other countries, and when I look at pictures like this, as sad as it is to say, I then shortly move on to watching the big game on tv. As horrible as this sounds, I am sure that this is the same situation in many households, throughout the United States. We are so fortunate and blessed to have the possessions that we have, that we take for granted the smallest things, such as food. This issue is extremely depressing to me, but I feel as if the situation will not change, because of the extreme abundance of food and other supplies found in our homeland.
When I first came upon this photograph, I really didn’t know what to think about it because I didn’t even recognize that it was a child crouching there. It took a minute to register with me. Then when I noticed the vulture in the background, my heart was aching for the young child. I just wanted to go pick the child up and help him/her to the nearest food camp. It’s upsetting that nothing drastic is being done about such terrible situations. Also, the picture is much more effective than the television commercials asking viewers to send money to third world countries that are starving. I had become numb to the commercials because they all seemed monotonous, but this photograph really touched me and brought out the emotions one should feel when observing a photo such as this.
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