[QUOTE=ivylass]
What happened to the child? I’m assuming after the photographer snapped the picture, he chased away the vulture and snatched up the child and took him to safety?
[/QUOTE]
Sadly, no. The photographer took the picture and left. He committed suicide months later due to depression.
Ah, thanks. I knew I’d seen a film of it and didn’t realize it was also a still photo taken by a separate person. Also, I could tell that the pistol had been fired, but didn’t realize you can actually see the bullet in the VC’s head in that photo.
Speaking of, this photo appeared in the late lamented Omni magazine (I don’t know that it was original to that publication) to illustrate a new breakthrough in photography (a camera quicker than a bullet) and I’ve always remembered and liked it.
Missed the edit window. Here is a bio of Kevin Carter, who took the picture of the Sudanese girl. There are apparently conflicting reports of what exactly happened.
Great thread. The first one that popped into my mind was the V-J Day kiss, the second the Iwo Jima raising the flag, followed closely by the 9/11 WTC & Challenger shuttle shots.
But I’m surprised these photos haven’t been added yet:
Mapplethorpe’s portrait of Patti Smith (actually, a few other Mapplethorpe photos come to mind, but I’ll refrain from posting them in the interests of workplace safety.)
I’m bugged now. There’s a particular photograph that I wanted to add to this thread but can’t seem to locate. Now it’s driving me crazy.
The image is from the Olympic games, sometime in the 1980s (I think it was '84?) of a sprinter/runner who suffered a muscle spasm and fell to the ground. The photo shows a medic rushing to her aid, while the runner, in tears, looks down the track at her competitors running on (and consequently, seeing her dreams of an Olympic medal vanishing before her eyes.)
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman]
I’m bugged now. There’s a particular photograph that I wanted to add to this thread but can’t seem to locate. Now it’s driving me crazy.
The image is from the Olympic games, sometime in the 1980s (I think it was '84?) of a sprinter/runner who suffered a muscle spasm and fell to the ground. The photo shows a medic rushing to her aid, while the runner, in tears, looks down the track at her competitors running on (and consequently, seeing her dreams of an Olympic medal vanishing before her eyes.)
That’s what I had in mind. When I was 5 or 6 (probably not more than a few years after the photo was taken), I liked looking through my parents’ encyclopedias and I saw that photo. I was disturbed by it, but for reasons that I didn’t know at the time.
[QUOTE=ivylass]
What happened to the child? I’m assuming after the photographer snapped the picture, he chased away the vulture and snatched up the child and took him to safety?
[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately, no. The Pulitzer-winning photographer, Kevin Carter, and other journalists and they were told, in no uncertain terms, they were not allowed to move anyone because of the risk of transmitting disease.
He did chase away the vulture and the girl got back up and continued on her way to the feeding center, but other than that he wasn’t able to help. He was surrounded by hundreds of starving children. He told an interviewer that afterwards he sat under a tree smoking cigarettes and crying, and wishing he could hug his own daughter.
He was traumatized but a lot of what he’d witnessed while on assignment and committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 33.
Sorry to simulpost, but here’s another photo that just came to mind that ought to be in this thread. (Truman made me think of Bacall, who made me think of Bogart, who made me think of “Casablanca”, which made me think of the nazi’s storming Paris. See how my mind works?)