In 1933 a photographer named Kevin Carter decided to take a trip to Sudan, Africa in order to capture the horrors of the apartheid that was happening during the time. The picture he came back with, known as the “Struggling Girl”, was more than he could have ever imagined. The image is of a young girl on the trek from her local town to a United Nations feeding unit. This girl is starving and barley alive, surrounded by a vulture who seems to be waiting for her to die. According to the website, “All that is interesting.com”, many people thought this image was too gruesome and should not have been published. In fact, some thought Carter was wrong for taking the picture instead of helping the young girl. Unfortunately, at the time Carter was surrounded by soldiers who would have shot him if he had helped her. Many people feared she would die soon after this picture was taken but, it was later cleared up that the girl was able to get away from the vulture. By looking at the plane of sight between the two subjects, and the colors in this picture we can see the true effects of starvation and cruelty imposed onto these people which is important because it reminds us that horrific events like this happen every day around the world. 

There is a saying which goes “without light there would be no sight”. This goes to mean that everything must have light on it to be seen. The light will then be reflected off of such object and into the viewer’s eyes or to a nearby object. This saying can relate to the image by Kevin Carter by looking at the line of sight in between the vulture and the young girl. The light hits the vulture and automatically your eyes are taken to the girl. Carter made this possible by waiting for the perfect time and motion to take the picture. He had to focus his camera to show this specific line of sight. When looking at the photo, the viewer can see an invisible diagonal line going from the vulture to the young girl. Some took this as the vulture was staring at the young girl as food. Although this may be true, Carter was trying to show the relationship between the two subjects through the line of sight. Everything else in the picture such as the ground, and the bushels of hay behind the vulture are all horizontal lines. It is an unbroken motion as those specific things continue on even behind the image. However, the line from the vulture to the child is just that. It connects the two subjects and nothing else. It could even be known as a line segment, when talking about mathematical terms, while the horizontal lines are continuous lines. In this picture Carter was also able to capture the relationship between the two subjects simply by their body positions. The fact that the girl happened to be in the same situation and around the same size of the vulture connects the two subjects. It can relate the two because not only is the vulture sitting on the ground stalking prey, but so is the girl. She is on the mission for food just as the vulture. The girl’s arms have seemed to become her wings as compared to the vulture’s wings. By the shear position of both of the subject’s bodies it shows they are not that different and the picture is able to tell a story beyond what the national subject matter shows. 

Another theme which connects the two subjects in the photo is the color scheme. Both the vulture and the young girl are the only dark colored items in this picture. They are a deep brown shade and yet the girl also has one spot of white on her which deems importance. White can mean hope, faith and innocence. The white says that yes this young girl and vulture are struggling for food, but there is faith that they will find it. By studying the young girl, you can see the white necklace is the only thing she has on. This could show that the necklace is her last line of hope, as it is the only bright thing in the picture. This sense of hopefulness and happiness is dramatically broken with the stark contrast of the shade of brown on the subjects. Brown can mean many things but in this case it comes into the symbol of poverty, uncertainty and the ground/earthly. It is clearly poverty because the young girl is starving and has no other choice but to walk miles on miles to the nearest food station in order to stay alive. We could argue the vulture suffers from such poverty too because he is fighting for his life and just wants a meal. This also comes back to the meaning of brown of ground and earthly. Finally, brown can be seen as uncertain. In the image it is unclear of what is going to happen next. Does the young girl die and get eaten? Does the young girl get away and find food? There are endless possibilities of what could happen next. After a New York Times follow up it was found that girl did get away from the vulture and continued her trek. However, it was never found out if the girl actually found the feeding center or if she lived onto adulthood. The lack of clarity leaves the viewer puzzled but also leaves them with opportunity to use his/her believes to finish the story.

In conclusion, Kevin Carter was able to take this picture which then inflicted a very wide range of emotions onto the viewer. If this picture was to be seen by a gang member in Africa he would think completely differently of this photo then what the average American would think. Most of these gangs would have wanted the girl to die because that is what they believe in. On the other hand, many people felt sorrow and anger when they saw the picture. This image accomplished the goal of Kevin Carter by demanding the audience to pay attention and compelling them to think.  
