Who: Research on the Sources of Visual Communication

Abstract

Who could do that? One of the most polarizing moments in photojournalistic history, and misunderstandings surrounding that moment, inspire many people to wonder how Kevin Carter could take a photo of a famished girl crouched down to rest on her way to a feeding station and being watched by a vulture. The image is a lightning rod for critics who see news photographers as their own sort of vulture, profiting from human suffering. Kevin Carter, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the image in 1994, committed suicide a few months later (Keller, 1994). The photograph, the public’s response, and Carter’s life provide a rich, if tragic, intersection for considering just “who” photojournalists are, why they do what they do, and how they go about it.