An image has the ability to open the minds of people about other places and experiences that may not be easily accessed. A picture captures a moment in time that is sometimes different than one that is being experienced now. It is possible that two people or multiple individuals can look at the same image but receive different images and experience different emotions. Perspective is what creates these differences and because people have different perspectives that are influenced by their own unique experiences, people often see the same image in different ways. However, there are some images that do allow for many people to see the same ideas and experience similar emotions. Happiness, depression, excitement and extreme sadness are all universal human emotions that all people experience in one degree or another. Those images that are able to bring together those universal human emotions are the images that create a lasting impact and no matter when the image was taken, will always create those powerful emotions for a viewer. Kevin Carter took one such image that creates such emotion in 1993. 

In the image there is a small person. It is at first unclear as to what has happened or caused this person to be in such a position. The viewer is then forced to look even closer and as a closer look is taken the viewer can see that it is a small child. The sex of the child is unknown and cannot be made out from the image. However, what is clear is that there is something wrong with the child. No injury or physical harm can be seen, but a viewer can then start to notice the shape of the hand, the arms and the legs, the legs and arms are extreme thin, the bones are visible and the ribs are exposed on the side of the child. The head is also larger than normal and while it is not clear as to what is physically wrong, a viewer can start to interpret that the child is sick or starving. There is no way of knowing why the child is starving or sick. From the image all one is able to see around the child dirt, rods a few dry trees; nothing that would give a perspective that the area is able to grow food and provide for the people. The land looks dry, like it had not rained in month. Gray dirt and brown grass give an idea of a place that is hot, dry, and with few resources. When a viewer takes these ideas and puts them together, the child may actually be starving. When the viewer looks in the background of the photo, there is a very large bird crowded on the ground about 6 or 8 feet away. The bird could be a hawk or a vulture but it is clear that the bird is waiting for the child to die to be able to eat the body and make it a meal.

When a viewer sees a young child that is hurt or is in pain, this already creates an emotion in the viewer Sadness, pain and unhappiness are common. A person now wants to see a child hurt and because most people see that children are innocent and should be treated with respect and care at all times, to see one that is in pain is hurtful. However, when the viewer sees that this child that is hurt is about to become a meal for a vulture, anger and confusion starts to set in. People are not used to thinking that a child would become a meal for a bird while it is about to die. People have a difficulty trying to make this a reality. The reason that this is so difficult to understand is because most people know that there is enough food out there in the world that can be shared and that most people let food that could be eaten by people like this starving child, go to waste. Anger and unhappiness as to why and how this situation has been allowed to happen is what is so painful at seeing such an image. Children are the most vulnerable group and so to see a child become a meal is very difficult and depressing. 

An image like this that is so powerful in its emotion and the pain that it creates for the viewer is all about making people to action and change. Seeing children suffer, because they are seen as a group that must be protected, get people to act and want to get involved to make a change. This image makes people to want to make a difference because while people always knew that starvation exists and that people die all the time from going hungry, not many people imagined that children would die so terribly as to be eaten by other animals. That image of a young child waiting to die and then to her eaten by a vulture is enough for people to want to stop the behaviors that lead to these situations and became involved in making a change.
