In this picture, photographer Kevin Carter took this picture of a vulture looking over a malnourished child. This photo received the Pulitzer Prize, but came with lots of criticism. People questioned why he didn’t do anything to help the girl because of the condition she was in. And unfortunately as a photographer, there is not much he can do. All he can do is chase the bird away, and not much else. What he does in the photo itself is he uses realism, color, contrast, and form to relay is point to the viewers. He captures this image because he wants to show the world the problems that is going on in this region. This photo was taken in 1993, and at this time, the second Sudanese civil war was underway. This was leaving the country in an atrocious famine, and the UN had to set up camps for refugees who have lost their homes in the war. Carter captured this photo of a little girl who was trying to crawl to the center, and the vulture appeared. Carter waited 15 minutes before trying to get the shot. This is such a powerful photo because it shows what other parts of the world have to go through. Carter’s goal of the photo is to show the rest of the world how lucky they have it. 

The first aspect of this image that is used is realism. For this, you need to understand the situation of the image. This photo was taken in Sudan, Africa, where clearly the health conditions are not good at all. People are starving all over, and food is being brought in on planes to the people. Finding water that is safe to drink and not from bottles is nearly impossible, so they need to rely on other countries to bring it in. Most people would not be able to last a week in these conditions, let alone live like this. And then comes the more vulgar part, which is the vulture. Vultures are known for praying on weaker or even dead animals, and this photo shows no difference. Except in this situation, the prey is a human. You see the vulture looking at the little girl like she is nothing more than dinner that night. And she cannot do anything about it because she is just too weak. She would not have the strength to fight off the bird, and was lucky that the photographer was there to chase it off. That’s the sad truth about how conditions were back then, and not much has changed. Flooding still ravishes the area, malnourishment leads to infections which then lead to diseases, and people cannot leave because they do not have the funds to do so. This photo shows us how lucky we really have it. We have a home to live in, clothes on our back, and we do not have to worry if we will be eating dinner that night or if our water will be clean. That is the purpose of the photo; it makes you think about what it would be like if you were in this situation. 

Carter also uses color to emphasize the picture. The way he captures the color in the photo shows how dead and barren the land is. There are no flowers or any sort of bright colors that might make it seem like there is a sign of life. He just captures the brown dirt and dead grass. This is symbolic for the not only the death toll in that part of the land, but also for the lack of life. It seems like as of now, things are not getting better, and there is little to look forward to. Also, in literature, different colors have different meanings. Yellow for instance is illness, and it unfortunately fits in with this picture. Not only the people, but also the land is not healthy. It is disease spread with little to no people getting any sort of help. The next color in the photo is brown. Brown in literature is symbolic for earthy. In this photo, brown is clearly the dominant color, and that is to show how there is no real advances in any sort of technology or even society. The photo shows that this area is simple in the sense of what life is like. You do not see any houses or paved roads or even street lights. What you do see is a dead field with no green grass what seems to be hay in the background, and a child who is in clear need of help. The brown is supposed to give an earth feel, but the yellowish green show that the earth in this photo is dead. The color scheme is used to make the viewer see that there is no life going on in the picture. The society is one that is unfortunately dead, and the people are struggling. You will not find any big green grass backyards or a white picket fence, but instead struggling fields and a society that needs help, and that is the sad truth.                                  

Contrast also plays an important role in this picture. The photo focuses on the vulture and the child, with the entire background blurred. This is a way of getting the viewer to look right at what is important to the photographer’s point of focus. He wants the viewer to immediately see what is wrong in the picture, He wants us to look into the fact that there is a vulture looking at this child like it is going to be its next meal. He wants people to realize that there are people living in these horrible conditions and it is unacceptable. That is why he includes nothing else in the photo besides the vulture and the girl, and blurs everything else out. Carter makes sure to also focus on the fact that there are no signs of life growing anywhere in the photo. He wants the viewer to see that these are no conditions that anyone should be living in. Including the dead plants adds to the fact that it seems like a helpless situation the young girl is in. 

The final feature that Carter addresses in this image is form. The two most important examples are the way the child is laying down, and the way the vulture is looking at her. For the child, she is laying down in a fetal position on the ground. When people think of the fetal position, it is used to describe something small that needs protection, and it is no different in this photo. She is curled up on the floor because she is unable to protect herself from the vulture. She has to strength, so all she can do is lay down and hope for the best. And it is not like she is defending herself from another human being. She has to protect herself from a bird. While vultures can be dangerous animals, it is not common to think that people would need to protect themselves from one. Humans are the most advanced creatures on the planet, so the fact that in this instance a human’s only form of defense is to get into the fetal position is not a good thing. Then there is the form of the vulture. Vultures are predatory animals, and this photo shows nothing different. The vulture is looking at the little girl with its neck out and just waiting there. It looks like it is going to attack her and eat her. This is the most important aspect of this photo, because it addresses what most people are thinking the first time they view it. He wants people to realize that conditions like this actually to exist around the world, and that is not just some made up myth.  

This photo is a powerful one. Carter captured this moment and what it does is it shows basically how the other half lives. The child in the photo is helpless against mother nature because she is so malnourished. He shows us that help is needed around the world, and that people really do have it this bad. In the photo, the vulture represents two things. One is a threat to the child. The child is clearly in need of help, and it poses a current threat to her. The vulture also represents a threat to society. The photo captures only one example of how these people are in need of help. The girl represents all the people who are living in these conditions, and how different threats are always with them. Whether it be sickness, lack of food or drink, or a predator, all these are a danger to these people. It seems like they cannot survive without help from an outside source. The photo really shows our earth is a tale of two worlds. Photos like these show people that their life should not be taken for granted, because other people would switch lives in an instant. 