He ventured into the dark alleys of life capturing images which no one ever had seen before. Or who would have wanted to face those sickening truths which were least appealing to human eyes? His pictures pierced our heart, splitting it wide open letting out our anguish, pain, disgust or whatever emotions that you’ve never known before.Emotions that were not familiar to the comfort zone where you, I and millions of others have been lingering for long. 16 years have passed since Kevin Carter – the lensman behind the famous Starving Child with Vulture photograph left this world. The disheartening picture questioned the ethics of photo journalism, which is debated even today.

As you look at the picture, what comes to your mind? Shock, disbelief, pain, anguish…and eventually you will be left behind with a disturbed mind stifled by numerous thoughts. I’m not denying that some of us will be left with a disdain for the man who captured this image on frame. I don’t remember when exactly I saw this picture for the first time. This photograph first appeared in NY Times in 1993. Carter was in Sudan to photograph the rebel movement in famine-stricken Sudan.

While taking the shots of famine victims, he saw this little girl crawling all the way to the feeding centre. As he adjusted the frame for her, a vulture approached. Carter himself later said that he waited for the vulture to spread its wings, but it didn’t happen, and so he chased the vulture away after taking the shot. Funds came pouring in to Sudan and people from all over the world wanted to know what eventually happened to the little girl, something Carter did not have any answer for.

Though the photograph earned Carter a Pulitzer Prize, he came under severe criticism for abandoning the child. A Florida-based news paper described him as:

“The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering, might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene.”