Struggling girl, 1993

struggling girl, 1993 Considered to be one of the most powerful pictures of all time, "Struggling girl" was taken by South African photographer Kevin Carter.

Carter was part of the Bang Bang club, which was a photography group consisting of Carter and 3 other photographers, Greg Marinovich, Ken Oosterbroek, and João Silva who went around Africa to record the violence that was going on in the country at the time. The "bang bang" comes from the sound of gun fire, as they would routinely find themselves in very violent situations. This photo is Carter's most famous piece of work. Despite the title, the photo actually depicts a young Sudanese boy, not a girl, crawling towards a food shelter while a vulture stalks him in the background. Carter was in Sudan to get materials on the civil war going on there at the time and the famine that was ravaging Sudan at the time. Many people don't know the story behind this picture. Carter was actually being escorted by an armed militia through this area and was under strict command to not interact with any of the locals. This was done to not contract any disease from them and to not socially mix. Carter actually laid down on the ground when he saw the vulture and then took this picture. He then chased the vulture away but was commanded to not help the boy. Carter then "sat under a tree, lit a cigarette, and cried to God." The boy however, did actually make it to the shelter and he did survive. His name was Kong Nyong. He went onto live until 2007 until he died from a fever. Carter would commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in 1994. In his suicide note, he said the things he saw while travelling around Africa haunted him and that he was scarred from his experiences. His suicide note said this: "I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners". Many criticize Carter for not doing more for the boy, but in reality there was very little he could do. Carters' work is some of the most influential photography of the 20th century. Photographer: Kevin Carter Source: logically.