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kevin carter was a south-african photojournalist and also a member of the bang bang club - a notable quartet consisting of conflict photographers greg marinovich, ken oosterbroek, joão silva and kevin carter himself.

they were known for going out and capturing the horrors of apartheid (a political and social system within south africa from 1948 to the early nineties, which imposed acute racial discriminations upon all non-whites), as well as the major famine which occured alongside/due to it.

kevin carter was white, nobody there would or could hurt him even when he was in the midst of the violence. but he was helpless. he couldn't interfere, he couldn't offer help, he couldn't do anything except take a picture and get it on the front page.

yes, his photography was a great help, it diverted the media and the general public's attention onto the massive problems taking place outside of their worlds. but it wasn't enough for him.

after a while, he turned to other methods to numb the pain of all of the events he witnessed and all of the wrongdoings he believed he had done. he was slowly spiralling into a deep dejection and he was losing his sense of identity.

kevin carter's most famous photograph was named "the vulture and the little girl," which pictures a collapsed child in the foreground - curled up, malnourished and barely alive. a vulture preys in the background, eager for some form of nutriment.

the photo was published in the new york times magazine in march of 1993, and it caused a massive furore and attracted the interest of the general public, whose reaction was to donate to any organisations which focused on the ongoing problems in sudan.

the photo also won the pulitzer prize for feature photography, which kevin was ecstatic about.
"i can't wait to show you the trophy," he wrote to his parents. "it is the most precious thing, and the highest acknowledgment of my work i could receive."

however, kevin carter was not commended by everybody. some said he was sadistic for taking the photo and that he should have helped the child. he did scare the vulture away and wait for the child to start moving on the trail again, but for some people that was not enough. and he was starting to believe them too.

in just over a few years, kevin carter saw countless acts of brutality and extreme violence. he was surrounded by sudanese soldiers who were there to keep him from interfering in any way. the only way he could help was to take a photo and get it published, which would bring awareness to what was going on.

he did that almost every day, it was a horrible but crucial part of his job, to go out everyday and be in the middle of such sickening and horrifying circumstances, to have to just watch it all transpire without being able to do anything about it. you would have to be rather emotionally detached or grow some sort "immunity" to it. kevin wasn't, and he didn't.

in fact, every time he went out there again, and every time he shot another photo had a slow, fatal effect on him.

ken oosterbroek, one of his closest friends and another member of the bang bang club, was shot and killed while on location. this had a huge effect on kevin carter, he believed it should have been him, especially because he wasn't there as he was doing an interview based on how he felt about winning a pulitzer.

nelson mandela was elected president in that same month; kevin had built his career on bringing awareness to the true horrors of apartheid, and in a way, that was over. he was lost in his depression and he believed it was all over for him - that view sadly never changed. he took his own life in july 1994.

every single day, kevin carter took one more step into the direction of insanity, and he did it for us. so that maybe, just maybe, we could perhaps catch a glimpse - or grasp an understanding of some sort - of what truly takes place in the world around us.

maybe, just maybe, he could portray everything that he saw, the emotions he felt, the horrors he witnessed, in a way that people would take the time to look at. through his photography, his art, his lifeline.

maybe he could be the one to make us acknowledge the events that we choose to ignore, stay away from, and refuse to indulge in.

i hope he's that person for you. it's vital to remember that every human should matter, dead or alive.

don't let his actions and his legacy be forgotten just because he isn't around anymore.

famine, destitution; poverty, barbarism; racism, famine. they all exist. they are inhumane. they are massive faults in the world we live in and they shouldn't be ignored. they can't be ignored.