Kim Jurczyk Jurczyk 1
Lori Bedell
CAS 137H
10/2/12
As visitors walk into Washington D.C.’s News Museum, they notice one of the most important exhibitions the museum has to offer: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery. Here, the museum houses some of the most influential, emotional, beautiful, and insightful photographs that have received the distinguished honor of being awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The Sudan Girl photograph, taken by Kevin Carter in 1994, remains one of the most infamous photographs in the collection, because the photograph illustrates a starving child attempting to crawl her way to a United Nations food camp. Not only is her suffering evident but, also, a vulture lurks in the background, patiently awaiting her death. Through the use of raw pathos, specific network of interpretation, and artistry created by framing and cropping, Kevin Carter captured a horrific moment that successfully shocked an audience into action while creating an image that represented all of human suffering and empathy.
When Carter captured this moment, the 1998 Sudan famine was furiously escalating to the point where over 70,000 lives were lost due to drought and a lack of global involvement. The event was deemed a humanitarian disaster stemming from a lack of empathy from the global community and human rights abuse done by the country’s government. Several factors caused the Sudanese people’s anguish, but Carter decided to photograph one single girl who embodied the entire countries struggle for survival. Therefore, the exigence created by the photograph is that a helpless person, specifically a child, suffered and most likely died due to a lack of global empathy. The proposition that stems from the exigence is that more people will continue to die and suffer if action is not taken to help those in need. Because of the raw agony represented in the photograph many members of the viewing audience demanded why Kevin Carter would dare take advantage of the situation. Therefore, one of the constraints of the photograph is that Kevin Carter portrayed the honest horror of the situation, which prevented some audience members to not react to the photograph positively but rather show disgust toward the photographer. The photograph, also, targets a large audience, specifically, the American people, because the photograph aimed to emotionally impact the public and force them to be aware of the atrocities happening in Sudan.
One of the main methods employed to reach the audience is the use of pathos, which is fueled by the public’s empathy and a specific network of interpretation. The picture reaches its audience emotionally not necessarily by forcing people to relate to the girl on a personnel level, but by addressing that fact that the atrocity is even happening. The atrocity is that a small child is dying from starvation, she is alone in her endeavor to reach food, and she curls her body in pain while wheezing from the physical strain of crawling to her only hope of survival. The situation calls for an emotional appeal by capturing the girl’s stolen youth and innocence, revealing that she is at her most vulnerable point and fighting to distance herself from death’s door. The photograph, also, focuses on her fetal position, the obvious signs of malnutrition, and the evidence of ribs and stick thin limbs. All these components relate to the ideology that people, specifically an innocent child, should never struggle to obtain food, because it is a basic need and a god given right to have. Also, American’s are surrounded by the privilege to always have access to food, which explains the ideology that food should be given and received by everyone.
Also, the vector of attention Kevin Carter creates emphasizes the pathos of the photograph. The image would not be as powerful or meaningful in its message if Carter had chosen to focus the camera instead on the vulture in the background or have the child at more of a distant angle. Instead, the vulture lurks in the background of our vector, which emphasizes the distance the creature puts between itself and the child. The distance adds to the expectation that the vulture is simply waiting for the child to die from starvation. Carter captured the juxtaposed positions of the fragile child and the stalking predator, emphasizing the child’s struggle and the powerful creature waiting behind her.
Editing, specifically, framing and cropping extenuates all aspects of the photograph, as well. If the photographer chose to crop out the vulture or not include the animal then the girl would not be seem as a victim but rather another starving child. The vulture represents the enemy, her vulnerability to the world, the inevitable fate that will probably ensue this girl. Without the creature in the background, the audience would focus more on the girl’s appearance rather then her possible fate and struggle.
The photograph is extremely successful in reaching its audience by being such a strong example of pathos and specific artistry to convey the struggle and famine of the entire nation seen through this starving girl. The long-term implications of the photo were that the public reacted even more urgently to the Sudanese famine, because it sparked horror into the American public and actually forced them to act. (Further conclusion)