Ethics in photojournalism

 

Ethics Map by Kaylie Moran

The controversy I chose for this project was Kevin Carter's famous picture of the vulture and the little girl. (shown below) The image shows a very famished young girl in Sudan lying on the ground as a vulture looks at her from a distance. When the image was published, people became angry with Carter, not understanding how he could just sit there and watch as the young malnourished girl lay in front of him. People were outraged at the inhumane picture and condition. What the public did not know from the picture was that behind the camera, multiple armed soldiers from Sundan would not have allowed any interaction to be had between the photographer and the young girl. 

Photo by Kevin Carter 

The photo was taken during a tour Carter was doing around starving villages in Sudan. Carter's entire career was spent traveling and capturing pictures of third-world countries in dire need in hopes of spreading awareness. The horrific scenes that Carter captured and lived through eventually led to his drug use and depression and then ultimately his death. 



I really do not know how to feel about this picture honestly. My rules on ethics say that anything that exploits someone or uses someone else's pain and struggles for any other reason besides to raise awareness is wrong. Despite how sad and hard this picture is to look at, the photographer behind it was photographing to raise awareness. While he might not have been able to help this specific girl, unfortunately, it is about the bigger picture in these tough instances. The photographer had a bigger image in his head to try to raise awareness and bring light to the sheer amount of famine and struggles happening in the villages specifically in Sudan but also in all of the countries he traveled to. While studying Kevin Carter's life, I was saddened to learn just how much guilt and hardship he went through. Most of my personal ethics map really touched back to people's morals and whether they were using someone's situation for good photos.  I do not feel like this is the situation with this specific photo especially after doing more research on the photographer and learning just how much guilt he went through seeing and photographing what he did, which ultimately led to his death. I also feel as though a lot of the controversy that people had towards this picture was because they did not know the details about the armed soldiers behind him making sure he did not interact with any of the subjects. I simply do not know if I would be able to photograph images like this, even if I knew they were bringing awareness, just due to how emotional the situation is. I applaud this photographer and others who are capable of doing this to help bring light to the sad conditions that need our help. 

Photo by Carol Guzy

Photo of young veteran

9/11 photo by Richard Drew