Benutzerin:Quod-erat-demonstrandum./Artikelwerkstatt/The vulture and the little girl

8.13131531.411341 The Vulture and the Little Girl (englisch für Der Geier und das kleine Mädchen; auch The Struggling Girl – deutsch etwa Das kämpfende Mädchen), ist eine unter anderem mit dem Pulitzer-Preis ausgezeichnete Aufnahme des südafrikanischen Fotografen Kevin Carter. Sie zeigt einen Kappengeier, der scheinbar wartend und mit etwas Abstand neben einem zerbrechlichen, vom Hunger gebeutelten und am Erdboden zusammengekrümmten sudanesischen Kind hockt – ein kleiner Junge, wie sich später herausstellte. Erstmals wurde die im März 1993 in Ayod (heutiger Südsudan) entstandene Fotografie am 26. März 1993 in der The New York Times veröffentlicht. In den folgenden Wochen und Monaten verbreitete sie sich um die Welt und wurde 1994 mit dem Pulitzer-Preis für Fotoreportagen ausgezeichnet. Auf die Auszeichnung und abweichende Berichte zu den Geschehnissen an jenem Tag folgten vermehrt Vorwürfe, Carter habe aus Gier nach Ruhm die verzweifelte Situation ausgenutzt, anstatt sich menschlich dem sterbensschwachen Kind zuzuwenden, ihm zu helfen. Vier Monate nach der Preisverleihung nahm sich der Fotograf das Leben.

Das Foto des hungernden Kindes

Umstände zu seiner Entstehung laut Carter

Carter berichtete, das Mädchen habe versucht, das einige hundert Meter entfernte Camp der United Nations zu erreichen, wo zeitgleich eine Lebensmittelverteilung stattfand und sei auf dem Weg zusammengebrochen. Als Carter die Situation fotografierte, habe sich ein Geier in die Nähe des Kindes gesetzt, das Carter für ein Mädchen hielt. Nach eigenen Angaben wartete Carter, um ein besseres Foto zu bekommen, etwa 20 Minuten darauf, dass der Geier seine Flügel ausbreite. Als dies aber nicht geschah, habe er den Vogel verjagt, um das Kind zu schützen.

Kommentar der News Paper Authority

Erst auf Nachfrage mehrerer Leser bei der News Paper Authority kommentierte die Zeitung zum Verbleib des Kindes, es habe sich zumindest so weit regeneriert, dass es seinen Weg habe fortsetzen können. Über den weiteren Verbleib sei aber nichts bekannt.

https://mysteriesrunsolved.com/2018/08/the-vulture-and-little-girl-kevin-carter-html.html

Abweichende Schilderung der Umstände

Der portugiesische Fotojournalist João Silva begleitete Carter in den Sudan. In einem Interview mit dem japanischen Journalisten und Autor Akio Fujiwara – veröffentlicht in Fujiwaras Buch The Boy who Became a Postcard (Ehagaki ni Sareta Shōnen) – schildert Silva die Umstände des prämierten Fotos anders.

Laut Silva wurden Carter und Silva von Mitarbeitern der Vereinten Nationen im Rahmen der „Operation Lifeline Sudan“ eingeflogen. Am 11. März 1993 landeten sie im südlichen Sudan. Die UN sagte ihnen, man werde in 30 Minuten wieder abfliegen, nachdem die mitgebrachten Lebensmittel verteilt worden seien. Die Fotografen begaben sich auf Motivsuche. Die UN-Mitarbeiter begannen, das Getreide zu verteilen, und die Frauen des Dorfes kamen aus ihren Holzhütten zum Flugzeug. Silva machte sich auf die Suche nach Guerilla-Kämpfern, Carter blieb in der Nähe des Flugzeugs.

Silva zufolge war Carter schockiert, da er zum ersten Mal konkret mit einer Hungersnot konfrontiert war. Carter machte also viele Bilder von verhungernden Kindern. Auch Silva begann, Kinder am Boden zu fotografieren, die aussahen, als würden sie weinen. Diese Bilder wurden nicht veröffentlicht. Die Eltern waren damit beschäftigt, die Lebensmittel vom Flugzeug entgegenzunehmen, und ließen ihre Kinder nur kurz allein, während ihnen die Nahrung ausgehändigt wurde. Zu diesen Kindern gehörte auch das Kind auf Carters Foto. Ein Geier sei hinter dem Mädchen gelandet und um die beiden besser im Bild zu haben, habe sich Carter sehr vorsichtig genähert, um den Geier nicht zu verscheuchen, und mehrere Fotos aus zehn Metern Entfernung gemacht, bis der Geier wieder wegflog.

Ein Sudanese gab Jahre später an, dass das fotografierte Kind sein Sohn Kong Nyong gewesen sei. Dieser habe die Hungersnot zwar überlebt, sei aber einige Jahre vor der Aussage seines Vaters verstorben.

Hintergrund

The Hunger Triangle, a name relief organizations used in the 1990s for the area defined by the southern Sudan communities Kongor, Ayod, and Waat, was dependent on UNESCO and other aid organizations to fight famine. Forty percent of the area's children under 5 years old were malnourished as of January 1993, and an estimated 10 to 13 adults died of starvation daily in Ayod alone. To raise awareness of the situation, Operation Lifeline Sudan invited photojournalists and others, previously excluded from entering the country, to report on conditions. In March 1993, the government began granting visas to journalists for a 24-hour stay with severe restrictions on their travel within the country, including government supervision at all times.

João Silva und Kevin Carter im Sudan

Invitation by UN Operation Lifeline Sudan

In March 1993 Robert Hadley, a former photographer and at this time the information officer for the UN Operation Lifeline Sudan, offered João Silva and Kevin Carter to come to Sudan and report about the famine in southern Sudan. It was an offer to go into southern Sudan with the rebels. Silva saw this as a chance to work more as war-photographer in the future. He started the arrangements and secured assignments for the expenses of the travel. Silva told Carter about the offer and Carter was also interested to go. According to fellow war photographer Greg Marinovich, Carter saw the trip as an opportunity to fix some problems "he felt trapped in". To take photos in Sudan was an opportunity for a better career as freelancer, and Kevin was apparently "on a high, motivated and enthusiastic about the trip".Vorlage:Sfn To pay for the travel Carter secured some money from the Associated Press and others, but needed to borrow money from Marinovich, for commitments back at home too.Vorlage:Sfn Not known to Carter and Silva was all the time that the UN Operation Lifeline Sudan did have "great difficulties in securing funding for Sudan pancake", explains Marinovich. Marinovich wrote further: "The UN hoped to publish the famine… Without publicity to show the need, it was difficult for aid organizations to sustain funding". About the political differences and fighting "João and Kevin knew none of this – they just wanted to get in and shoot pictures".

Waiting in Nairobi

Silva and Carter had prepared carefully for the trip. They stopped in Nairobi on their way to Sudan. The new fighting in Sudan forced them to wait in Nairobi for an unspecified period of time. In between Carter was flying with the UN for one day to Juba in south Sudan to take photos of a barge, with food aid for the region. But soon the situation changed again. The UN received permission from a rebel group to fly food aid to Ayod. Also Rob Hadley was flying on a UN light plane in and invited Silva and Carter to fly with him to Ayod.Vorlage:Sfn

In Ayod

The next day their light aircraft touched down in the tiny hamlet of Ayod with the cargo aircraft landing shortly afterwards. The residents of the hamlet have been looked after by the UN aid station for some time. Greg Marinovich and João Silva described that in the book The Bang Bang Club, Chapter 10 "Flies and Hungry People".Vorlage:Sfn The child was already cared for before Kevin Carter and João Silva landed there and Carter took his famous picture. Marinovich wrote that the villagers were already waiting next to the runway to get the food as quickly as possible: "Mothers who had joined the throng waiting for food left their children on the sandy ground nearby."Vorlage:Sfn Silva and Carter separated to take pictures of both children and adults, both the living and dead, all victims of the catastrophic famine that had arisen through the war. Carter went several times to Silva to tell him about the shocking situation he had just photographed. Witnessing the famine affected him emotionally. Silva was searching for rebel soldiers who could take him to someone in authority and when he found some soldiers Carter joined him. The soldiers did not speak English, but one was interested in Carter's watch. Carter gave him his cheap wristwatch as a gift.Vorlage:Sfn The soldiers became their bodyguards and followed them for their protection.Vorlage:Sfn

To stay a week with the rebels they needed the permission of a rebel commander. Their plane was due to depart in an hour and without the permission to stay they would be forced to fly out. Again they separated and Silva went to the clinic complex to ask for the rebel commander and he was told the commander was in Kongor, South Sudan. This was for Silva good news as, "their little UN plane was heading there next". He left the clinic and went back to the runway, taking on his way pictures of children and people. He came across a child lying on his face in the hot sun – he took a picture.Vorlage:Sfn

Carter saw Silva on the runway and told him, "You won't believe what I've just shot! … I was shooting this kid on her knees, and then changed my angle, and suddenly there was this vulture right behind her! … And I just kept shooting – shot lots of film!Vorlage:Sfn Silva asked him where he shot the picture and was looking around to take a photo as well. Carter pointed to a place Vorlage:Convert away. Then Carter told him that he had chased the vulture away. He told Silva he was shocked by the situation he had just photographed, saying, "I see all this, and all I can think of is Megan", his young daughter. A few minutes later they left Ayod for Kongor.Vorlage:Sfn

In 2011, the child's father revealed the child was actually a boy, Kong Nyong, and had been taken care of by the UN food aid station. Nyong had died four years prior, c. 2007, of "fevers", according to his family.

Publication and public reaction

In March 1993, The New York Times was seeking an image to illustrate a story by Donatella Lorch about the Sudan. Nancy Buirski, the newspaper's picture editor on the foreign desk, called Marinovich, who told her about "an image of a vulture stalking a starving child who had collapsed in the sand." Carter's photo was published in the March 26, 1993 edition.Vorlage:Sfn The caption read: "A little girl, weakened from hunger, collapsed recently along the trail to a feeding center in Ayod. Nearby, a vulture waited."

This first publication in The New York Times "caused a sensation", Marinovich wrote, adding, "It was being used in posters for raising funds for aid organization. Papers and magazines around the world had published it, and the immediate public reaction was to send money to any humanitarian organization that had an operation in Sudan."Vorlage:Sfn

Special editorial

Due to the public reaction and questions about the child's condition, The New York Times published a special editorial in its 30 March 1993 edition, which said in part, "A picture last Friday with an article about the Sudan showed a little Sudanese girl who had collapsed from hunger on the trail to a feeding center in Ayod. A vulture lurked behind her. Many readers have asked about the fate of the girl. The photographer reports that she recovered enough to resume her trek after the vulture was chased away. It is not known whether she reached the center."

Auszeichnungen

• 1994: Pulitzer-Preis für Fotoreportagen
• 1994: Bild des Jahres (The American Magazine)

Folgen für Carter

→ Hauptartikel: Kevin Carter

Vier Monate nach seiner Auszeichnung mit dem renommierten Pulitzer-Preis, am 27. Juli 1994, starb Carter im Alter von 33 Jahren an den Folgen einer Kohlenmonoxidvergiftung, sein Tod wurde als bewusst selbst beigefügt (Suizid) eingestuft.

Bibliografie

• Greg Marinovich, João Silva: The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War. Basic Books, New York, N.Y. 2000, ISBN 0-465-04413-1, SELIBR 4962156 (google.com). 

Einzelnachweise

en:Category:Famines in Africa en:Category:Color photographs en:Category:Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs en:Category:History of South Sudan en:Category:1993 works en:Category:1993 in art en:Category:1990s photographs