Lets spare a thought

magick · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:22

So todays Christams and I hope everyone has enjoyed it but lets spare a thought for those whom Christams is just another day of immense suffering :-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ea...tographer-of-the-Year-2011-award-winners.html

Kouba · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:24

Feed the world ~

Good thread buddy.

Nitefly · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:25

Good thought provoking thread, but I think there is something slightly morally dubious about exploiting tragedy for a photo competition.... reminds me of that horrible vulture picture.

Kouba · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:26

Nitefly said:
I think there is something slightly morally dubious about exploiting tragedy for a photo competition.... reminds me of that horrible vulture picture.

Very good point, can't believe I had missed that!

Aedus · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:32

Christams?

Never heard of it.

hitmanuk · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:37

Lets give a thought for all the service men out around the world serving our country

Stewy · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:38

Think you mean 'Yuletime'.

Nitefly · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:47

Moses said:
Is it better that it still happens... but we just don't see it?

Obviously not, that's clearly not what I'm saying. The point is, when does it become 'disaster porn'? I find it hard not to agree with the criticisms below:

In March 1993, while on a trip to Sudan, Carter was preparing to photograph a starving toddler trying to reach a feeding center when a vulture landed nearby. Carter reported to have taken the picture, because it was his "job title", and leaving. [5] He came under criticism for failing to help the girl:

The St. Petersburg Times in Florida said this of Carter: "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."[6]

Sold to the New York Times, the photograph first appeared on March 26, 1993. Hundreds of people contacted the newspaper to ask the fate of the girl. The paper reported that it was unknown whether she had managed to reach the feeding center. In 1994, the photograph won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.[5]

magick · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:47

Nitefly said:
Good thought provoking thread, but I think there is something slightly morally dubious about exploiting tragedy for a photo competition.... reminds me of that horrible vulture picture.

I read somewhere that the guy who took the vulture picture ended committing suicide it effected him that much.

Nitefly · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:50

magick said:
I read somewhere that the guy who took the vulture picture ended committing suicide it effected him that much.

He did. I remember reading that he sat there an hour waiting for the perfect photo :/

Raikiri · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:51

Nitefly said:
Good thought provoking thread, but I think there is something slightly morally dubious about exploiting tragedy for a photo competition.... reminds me of that horrible vulture picture.

I don't see it as exploiting it, how else are you going to find out about what happens around the world unless people go there and document it?

FYI the guy who took the vulture photo killed himself shortly after winning a Pulitzer for it, partly due to the flack he got about it.

/Edit/ Beaten by magick of all people!

Nitefly · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:52

Raikiri said:
I don't see it as exploiting it, how else are you going to find out about what happens around the world unless people go there and document it?

FYI the guy who took the vulture photo killed himself shortly after winning a Pulitzer for it, partly due to the flack he got about it.

/Edit/ Beaten by magick of all people!

But is it actually documenting it, or merely seeking the glory of capturing it, at the expense of doing something to rectify the problem?

Skillmister · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:54

Yes let's spare a thought....

okay back to my first world problems, my beer is too warm :mad:

Nitefly · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:55

Skillmister said:
Yes let's spare a thought....

okay back to my first world problems, my beer is too warm

Ouch, cold

Or err, maybe not!

Agent_Smith357 · 25 Dec 2011 at 23:55

This wont stop till socialism starts.

Raikiri · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:00

Nitefly said:
But is it actually documenting it, or merely seeking the glory of capturing it, at the expense of doing something to rectify the problem?

You could argue that capturing it does help to rectify it, a picture like that seen by millions will probably do more good than any one person could do.

Skillmister said:
okay back to my first world problems, my beer is too warm

Only problem with beer, can't put ice in it

magick · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:02

Agent_Smith357 said:
This wont stop till socialism starts.

In theory maybe. But in reality socialism is equally as corrupt and inefficient at solving real problems as capitalism.

EDIT : 10 years of socialism under New Labour hasn't done much good for the UK. Not that Tories will make things much better either.

mrk · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:09

Photographs like that aren't sought out and taken just for the sake of a competition. They get taken because the subjects matter to the photographer and the photographer wanted to take a picture of it/them. It just so happens he's a journo and submitted it later which won him a competition.

Besides, without images like that people would not bat two eyelids when it comes to bringing 3rd world issues to light. A good picture stands a far better chance at people taking action than a rubbish one. Just the way it is.

Hades · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:13

At this time of year I often think of the football match between the trenches in WW1. It shows that humanity can shine through however dire the situation. It shows that our nation and other nations are the same. It also shows that however badly we think things are going now, they are infinitely better than in history. We should be thankful.

Homer-Simpson · 26 Dec 2011 at 00:15

Not to change the message of the thread but this was the "alternative account" of the photograph that everyone loves to post

João Silva, a Portuguese photojournalist based in South Africa who accompanied Carter to Sudan, gave a different version of events in an interview with Japanese journalist and writer Akio Fujiwara that was published in Fujiwara's book The Boy who Became a Postcard (絵葉書にされた少年 - Ehagaki ni sareta shōnen).[7]

According to Silva, they (Carter and Silva) went to Sudan with the United Nations aboard Operation Lifeline Sudan and landed in Southern Sudan on March 11, 1993. The UN told them that they would take off again in 30 minutes (the time necessary to distribute food), so they ran around looking to take shots. The UN started to distribute corn and the women of the village came out of their wooden huts to meet the plane. Silva went looking for guerrilla fighters, while Carter strayed no more than a few dozen feet from the plane.

Again according to Silva, Carter was quite shocked as it was the first time that he had seen a famine situation and so he took many shots of the children suffering from famine. Silva also started to take photos of children on the ground as if crying, which were not published. The parents of the children were busy taking food from the plane, so they had left their children only briefly while they collected the food. This was the situation for the girl in the photo taken by Carter. A vulture landed behind the girl. To get the two in focus, Carter approached the scene very slowly so as not to scare the vulture away and took a photo from approximately 10 metres. He took a few more photos before chasing the bird away.

Two Spanish photographers who were in the same area at that time, José María Luis Arenzana and Luis Davilla, without knowing the photograph of Kevin Carter, took a picture in a similar situation. As recounted on several occasions, it was a feeding center, and the vultures came from a manure pit waste:

We took him and Pepe Arenzana to Ayod, where most of the time were in a feeding center where locals go. At one end of the enclosure, was a dump where waste and was pulling people to defecate. As these children are so weak and malnourished they are going head giving the impression that they are dead. As part of the fauna there are vultures go for these remains. So if you grab a telephoto crush the child's perspective in the foreground and background and it seems that the vultures will eat it, but that's an absolute hoax, perhaps the animal is 20 meters.

Also part of the note he left when he commited suicide said

"I am depressed ... without phone ... money for rent ... money for child support ... money for debts ... money!!! ... I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings and corpses and anger and pain ... of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners ... I have gone to join Ken [recently deceased colleague Ken Oosterbroek] if I am that lucky."

Both of which are well documented across the internet.