South African photojournalist Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for Famine in Sudan. However, the prestigious award did not bring him happiness, and three months later, Carter committed suicide.
The snapshot for which the prize was awarded
The Pulitzer Prize is the most prestigious award in journalism. With a relatively small reward of ten thousand dollars, she brings unconditional recognition to the journalistic world. But sometimes the Pulitzer Prize doesn't bode well. For example, South African journalist Kevin Carter won the award for best artistic photography in 1994.
The photo of a girl dying of hunger, near whom a vulture has landed, waiting for her death, went around and shocked the whole world.
The photographers who were at that moment next to Carter took many similar pictures and later said that the situation was such that death was literally in the air in Sudan.
For the first time, Carter witnessed such terrible pictures: the girl's parents went to unload the plane with humanitarian aid and left their daughter alone. At this time, a vulture flew up to her. The photo was taken as if the girl had almost died, and the vulture was about to devour her.
The picture was first published by the New York Times magazine, which bought it from Carter. A flurry of accusations fell upon the photographer that he relished cruelty and mocked the sacred feelings of his parents. That he himself is not much different from the vulture. Despite all this, the Pulitzer Committee awarded him their prize.
Kevin Carter's life after the award and his death
The fame did not benefit the journalist. Literally three months after the photo was published in the New York Times, Carter drove his car to the river bank, taped the hose to the exhaust pipe, and inserted the other end into the half-open window, leaving the engine running. Carter was only thirty-four years old at the time. This was not his first attempt at suicide, but this time he did not survive.
In his suicide note, the photographer admitted that the highest achievements devalue life and make it unnecessary.
Carter left a suicide note in which he complained about the lack of money and unbearable living conditions. At the same time, the photographer was at the peak of his fame - the entire journalistic world was divided into supporters and opponents of Carter - criticism and admiration for him merged in the rays of glory. He became a welcome guest at parties and get-togethers, and job offers from well-known magazines literally rained down on him. But he did not need fame - Carter suffered from depression that he did not help that girl in the picture. Besides, he was a drug addict. Before his death, he was often visited by visions of the killed and wounded people whom he filmed.
