Kevin, like the other members of the Bang-Bang Club who faced similar questions about the photos they took, began to question whether he had failed to pass some basic test of his fundamental humanity. The self-doubt, coupled with his emerging self-hatred and fear of failure after winning such an enormous prize (a fear that many writers also face after success) -- as well as the death of his colleague and best friend, Ken Oosterbroek -- led to his suicide.
In recent years, historians and writers (rightly) have come under scrutiny regarding the veracity of their words. Yes, books and pictures can be liberating. They can influence people to be compassionate, as this photo did by encouraging people to make donations for food relief to countries like the Sudan.
But like Kevin Carter, we must scrutinize how we portray reality and understand how damaging words and pictures can be, and that our responsibility does not end with writing an article or taking a picture. This does not mean there is no place for alternate perceptions, only that there should be an understanding that much of what passes for history or news is one perception, one aspect or layer to the truth, and not the whole of it.
As I have mentioned in other articles, especially "Defining Terrorism," those who control the press often control our understanding of the world we live in. We must question whether those who present truth to us - President George W. Bush, Tom Brokaw, the journalist in the bush, the historian in the ivory tower - have given us incontrovertible evidence for the reality they present. Otherwise, we dumbly accept whatever they tell us, going along with what ultimately can lead to our demise. It is not enough to assume they are human and would not wish evil on us, that they are politicians or journalists or historians, and know best. We know this is not true, otherwise the massacres in Rwanda would not have occurred in 1994; the Holocaust would be nothing but a nightmare; Stalin's murders, a vague possibility.
Those who write have a responsibility - to be as accurate as possible, to understand their biases and attempt to leave them behind. Those who read have another responsibility - to question when information seems lacking, to read with a grain of salt, and to demand the whole story.
