Blog # 6 Vulture Stalking Child

Posted on October 25, 2012

The photo “Vulture Stalking Child” sends chills down the spines of its viewers. “Vulture Stalking
Child” was taken during the famine in Sudan. I wrote a visual rhetorical paper on this iconic image
in a Writing, Rhetoric and Discourse class I took last year.

The idea the image portrays is the extent of how severe the famine was. Vultures generally scavenge
the dead, the little girl; stranded, hungry and weak, has essentially been mistaken for a meal. The
photo emphasizes this idea through two strategies; the close up sharp appearance of the girl, and
the use of color. The background of the image is obscure, while the resolution of the girl is
purposefully most clear. It is sunny outside, but further back where the shrubs are it’s gloomier.
The light is used to highlight the detail of the girl and vulture, though no specific details are
paid to the shrubs and hay in the background. This immediately draws the focus of the audience to
the girl, gradually drifting the focus to the vulture and then to the surroundings. There are no
vibrant colors shown in this image, neither is the picture black and white. The colors are rather
neutral and earthy; depicting a natural and realistic environment. The photo doesn’t need to be
visually modified in any way; the disturbing reality of the image is all that is needed to convey
the idea.

In March 1993 Kevin Carter made a trip to Sudan. Near the village of Ayod, Carter found a girl who
had stopped to rest while struggling to a United Nations feeding centre, whereupon a vulture had
landed nearby. Careful not to disturb the bird, he waited for twenty minutes until the vulture was
close enough, positioned himself for the best possible image and only then chased the vulture away.
At this point Carter was probably not yet aware that he had shot one of the most –or even the most-
controversial photographs in the history of photojournalism.


The photograph was sold to The New York Times where it appeared for the first time on March 26,
1993. Practically overnight hundreds of people contacted the newspaper to ask whether the child had
survived, leading the newspaper to run a special editor's note saying the girl had enough strength
to walk away from the vulture, but that her ultimate fate was unknown. On April 2, 1994 Nancy
Buirski, a foreign New York Times picture editor, phoned Carter to inform him he had been awarded
with the most coveted prize for photojournalism; the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.


As with many dramatic photographs, Carter came under criticism for this shot. He was blamed for
just photographing — and not helping — the little girl. The St. Petersburg Times in Florida wrote:
"The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering, might just as well be a
predator, another vulture on the scene”. The attitude that public opinion condemned was not only
that of taking the picture instead of chasing the vulture immediately away, but also the fact that
he did not help the girl afterwards –as Carter explained later- leaving her in such a weak
condition to continue the march by her self towards the feeding centre. Carter committed suicide
two years after receiving the Pulitzer Prize.