The Life & Death of Kevin Carter
March 12th 2010 05:33
On 27th July 1994, Kevin Carter drove to a river near where he grew up, attached a garden hose to the exhaust and through the passenger side window, switched on the engine, put music on his tape player and took his life
Two months before, he was in America receiving photojournalism’s biggest prize and had the whole world at his feet. What lead a promising talent to end his life?
Kevin’s early years were difficult. His parents accepted apartheid but Kevin couldn’t. “We weren’t racist at home but I do now question how my parents’ generation could have been so lackadaisical about fighting the obvious sin of apartheid’
He conscripted into the South African Defense Force where he was forced to aid the regime he so despised. On one occasion he was beaten for defending of a black waiter who was being insulted.
“Somewhere along the line, suicide became the option. I had decided to do it. I wandered from chemist shop to chemist shop, accumulating a large quantity and variety of sleeping tablet and painkillers. For the cherry on the top I bought some rat poison, and I took the stash to my room.”
Kevin came to in a hospital ward. “I shall never forget facing my mother again. It is living through a suicide that is the hardest part.”
In 1983, while on guard duty a car came to a halt outside the Air Force headquarters. Two men leapt out and, before Kevin knew what was happening, he was hurled off his feet by a bomb explosion.
This event gave Kevin the urge to document his homelands issues. After completing his service, he drifted towards journalism and started working for The Johannesburg Sunday Express. By 1984, his hatred of apartheid pushed him towards working for The Johannesburg Star where he put himself in the firing line and was arrested on numerous occasions in order to expose the facts.
He met a photographer named Julia Lloyd. Within two weeks they were living together and soon Julia was pregnant. Not long after the birth of their daughter, Megan, they broke up. Kevin would find himself missing his daughter immensely.
Carter was the first person to photograph a public execution by a style called “necklacing” whereby a tyre is placed around the neck of the victim, filled with gasoline and set alight.
“I was appalled at what they were doing, I was appalled at what I was doing. But then people started talking about those pictures; they created quite a stir. And then I felt that maybe my actions hadn’t been at all bad. Being a witness to something horrible wasn’t necessarily such a bad thing to do.”
By 1990, Kevin had become chief photographer for the anti-apartheid Weekly Mail. Carter teamed up with friends, Ken Oosterbroek, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. These four photojournalists put themselves in the firing line to capture the full extent of the violence. The four became so well known that they took on the name “The Bang-Bang Club”
The atrocities they constantly saw were a heavy burden on them all. In his autobiography, Greg Marinovich states, “Kevin was the most outwardly affected and that meant that life as his friend could be demanding. He seemed to have no borders, no emotional boundaries – everything that happened to him would penetrate his very being and let all that was inside him just pour on out.”
One night whilst smoking cannabis and drinking with Joao, Kevin confessed he was addicted to the white pipe, a dangerous mixture of cannabis and a tranquilizer.
In September 1990, Greg Marinovich photographed some ANC supporters stabbing a Zulu to death. The resultant image earned Marinovich a Pulitzer Prize and great acclaim. The prize upped the stakes for the rest of the club, especially Carter.
In March 1993, Carter and Joao Silva made a trip to Sudan to photograph the rebel movement there. They followed a plane carrying food into a settlement. On landing both couldn’t believe the scene in front of them. Starving children and adults surrounded the plane desperate for the quickly diminishing food supplies. Many were too weak to walk.
As Kevin started to photograph, he saw a young girl struggling to reach the feeding centre. As he got closer, a vulture landed near her. Kevin waited, hoping the bird would spread its wings but, when it didn’t, he snapped the image before chasing it away.
A few days later Greg Marinovich received a call from The New York Times. They were planning to run a story on Sudan but were finding it difficult to find suitable images and wondered if Greg had any. Greg told them Kevin had a perfect image.
The picture created so much attention that people were asking The Times what had happened to the girl. Had she survived? Kevin couldn’t answer this question convincingly. Whilst the girl was only a short distance from the feeding centre and he said he frightened the vulture away, he couldn’t say for certain.
Joao Silva believes there was no doubt that the girl was safe. But that didn’t stop the questions, nor did it ease Kevin’s conscience.
Regardless, Carter was deemed a success. His confidence was sky high. He started to believe that he could make it as a photographer and left The Weekly Mail to freelance for Reuters.
By April 1994 Kevin’s position at Reuters was already in jeopardy. Whilst he could provide images of outstanding quality, he was equally prone to delivering nothing. On top of this his drug use was increasing. On one occasion, Reuters assigned him to cover a speech Nelson Mandela was making. Kevin arrived late and stoned. He got bored and decided to leave yelling “If the old man catches a bullet, phone me.”
Kevin got into his car and inhaled a ready-made white pipe. Soon after he crashed into the wall of a home, smashing his head on the windscreen. When the police arrived Kevin got into a brawl and was arrested. Reuters decided to terminate Kevin’s contract.
Whilst this was happening in South Africa, The New York Times were debating whether to put Kevin’s image forward for The Pulitzer Prize. The Times had never won a Pulitzer for photography before and, since Kevin’s image was clearly the best for that year, they put the image forward. It came as no surprise when it won.
When foreign picture editor Nancy Buirksi called Kevin to tell him the great news she was taken by surprise when his response was to complain about all his personal problems. How he’d crashed his car, lost his job and needed money to support his daughter. Despite repeatedly telling Kevin that all these problems were now irrelevant he wouldn’t listen. Eventually she called Greg Marinovich who confessed that Kevin was a drug addict and most likely high.
On the morning of 18th April, the “Bang-Bang” photographers headed to Thokoza to cover an outbreak of violence. Carter had an interview scheduled in Johannesburg about his Pulitzer Prize so he left early.
Returning to Thokoza after lunch he turned on the radio to hear Ken Oosterbroek had been killed.
Ken’s death affected Kevin badly. He loved him like a twin brother. Kevin would say to people how much they looked alike. He felt that Ken was the good, successful twin whilst he was an inferior copy. He later told friends he should have taken the bullet, not Ken.
Not long after Ken’s death, Kevin had another opportunity to turn his life around as he jetted off to New York to collect his Pulitzer Prize.
After her earlier telephone conversation, Nancy Buirksi was apprehensive about meeting Kevin. However, upon meeting him she thought he was extremely charming and fun to be around.
By the time it actually came round to him receiving the prize Kevin knew the full extent of what it meant. Writing to his mother he said, “ I swear I got the most applause of anybody. It is the most precious thing and the highest acknowledgement of my work I could receive.”
The one area that dogged Kevin’s time in New York was the questions he could not answer about the picture. Did the girl make it? Why did he not help her?
The vulture picture seemed to be as much a curse as it was a prize. In an interview with American Photo magazine, Kevin said, “ This is my most successful image after ten years of taking pictures, but I do not want to hang it on my wall. I hate it”
Kevin returned from New York with everything he needed to finally become a leading professional photographer. He signed up with leading photo-press agency Sygma. Things were certainly looking up.
Sygma asked Kevin to cover Nelson Mandela and French president Francois Mitterand’s visit to Johannesburg. Whilst he was delighted with his shots, Sygma said he sent the film off too late for deadlines and the pictures were not of a high quality.
This was all it took for Kevin to slide back into depression. He thought every picture would be judged by the benchmark of his vulture picture and that he would never reach such a high again.
Sygma’s secured him an assignment for Time magazine. They wanted him to travel to Mozambique to record Nelson Mandela’s first trip to another country.
Kevin missed his flight then, six days later; on the return flight he left the undeveloped film on his seat. After returning to a friends house Carter was threatening to gas himself to death.
The next day Carter turned up unannounced at the home oft Ken Oosterbroek’s wife Monica. Carter spilt all his heartache out to her but, still coming to terms with her own grief, she was unable to console him very well. At around 5:30pm Kevin left. Monica seems to be the last person to see him alive.
At around 9pm, Carter parked his truck next to a tree at the Field and Study Center next to The Braamfonteinspruit River and gassed himself.
The suicide note he left stated “I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.”
Two months before, he was in America receiving photojournalism’s biggest prize and had the whole world at his feet. What lead a promising talent to end his life?
Kevin’s early years were difficult. His parents accepted apartheid but Kevin couldn’t. “We weren’t racist at home but I do now question how my parents’ generation could have been so lackadaisical about fighting the obvious sin of apartheid’
He conscripted into the South African Defense Force where he was forced to aid the regime he so despised. On one occasion he was beaten for defending of a black waiter who was being insulted.
“Somewhere along the line, suicide became the option. I had decided to do it. I wandered from chemist shop to chemist shop, accumulating a large quantity and variety of sleeping tablet and painkillers. For the cherry on the top I bought some rat poison, and I took the stash to my room.”
Kevin came to in a hospital ward. “I shall never forget facing my mother again. It is living through a suicide that is the hardest part.”
In 1983, while on guard duty a car came to a halt outside the Air Force headquarters. Two men leapt out and, before Kevin knew what was happening, he was hurled off his feet by a bomb explosion.
This event gave Kevin the urge to document his homelands issues. After completing his service, he drifted towards journalism and started working for The Johannesburg Sunday Express. By 1984, his hatred of apartheid pushed him towards working for The Johannesburg Star where he put himself in the firing line and was arrested on numerous occasions in order to expose the facts.
He met a photographer named Julia Lloyd. Within two weeks they were living together and soon Julia was pregnant. Not long after the birth of their daughter, Megan, they broke up. Kevin would find himself missing his daughter immensely.
Carter was the first person to photograph a public execution by a style called “necklacing” whereby a tyre is placed around the neck of the victim, filled with gasoline and set alight.
“I was appalled at what they were doing, I was appalled at what I was doing. But then people started talking about those pictures; they created quite a stir. And then I felt that maybe my actions hadn’t been at all bad. Being a witness to something horrible wasn’t necessarily such a bad thing to do.”
Kevin Carter
By 1990, Kevin had become chief photographer for the anti-apartheid Weekly Mail. Carter teamed up with friends, Ken Oosterbroek, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva. These four photojournalists put themselves in the firing line to capture the full extent of the violence. The four became so well known that they took on the name “The Bang-Bang Club”
The atrocities they constantly saw were a heavy burden on them all. In his autobiography, Greg Marinovich states, “Kevin was the most outwardly affected and that meant that life as his friend could be demanding. He seemed to have no borders, no emotional boundaries – everything that happened to him would penetrate his very being and let all that was inside him just pour on out.”
One night whilst smoking cannabis and drinking with Joao, Kevin confessed he was addicted to the white pipe, a dangerous mixture of cannabis and a tranquilizer.
In September 1990, Greg Marinovich photographed some ANC supporters stabbing a Zulu to death. The resultant image earned Marinovich a Pulitzer Prize and great acclaim. The prize upped the stakes for the rest of the club, especially Carter.
In March 1993, Carter and Joao Silva made a trip to Sudan to photograph the rebel movement there. They followed a plane carrying food into a settlement. On landing both couldn’t believe the scene in front of them. Starving children and adults surrounded the plane desperate for the quickly diminishing food supplies. Many were too weak to walk.
As Kevin started to photograph, he saw a young girl struggling to reach the feeding centre. As he got closer, a vulture landed near her. Kevin waited, hoping the bird would spread its wings but, when it didn’t, he snapped the image before chasing it away.
A few days later Greg Marinovich received a call from The New York Times. They were planning to run a story on Sudan but were finding it difficult to find suitable images and wondered if Greg had any. Greg told them Kevin had a perfect image.
The picture created so much attention that people were asking The Times what had happened to the girl. Had she survived? Kevin couldn’t answer this question convincingly. Whilst the girl was only a short distance from the feeding centre and he said he frightened the vulture away, he couldn’t say for certain.
Joao Silva believes there was no doubt that the girl was safe. But that didn’t stop the questions, nor did it ease Kevin’s conscience.
Regardless, Carter was deemed a success. His confidence was sky high. He started to believe that he could make it as a photographer and left The Weekly Mail to freelance for Reuters.
By April 1994 Kevin’s position at Reuters was already in jeopardy. Whilst he could provide images of outstanding quality, he was equally prone to delivering nothing. On top of this his drug use was increasing. On one occasion, Reuters assigned him to cover a speech Nelson Mandela was making. Kevin arrived late and stoned. He got bored and decided to leave yelling “If the old man catches a bullet, phone me.”
Kevin got into his car and inhaled a ready-made white pipe. Soon after he crashed into the wall of a home, smashing his head on the windscreen. When the police arrived Kevin got into a brawl and was arrested. Reuters decided to terminate Kevin’s contract.
Whilst this was happening in South Africa, The New York Times were debating whether to put Kevin’s image forward for The Pulitzer Prize. The Times had never won a Pulitzer for photography before and, since Kevin’s image was clearly the best for that year, they put the image forward. It came as no surprise when it won.
When foreign picture editor Nancy Buirksi called Kevin to tell him the great news she was taken by surprise when his response was to complain about all his personal problems. How he’d crashed his car, lost his job and needed money to support his daughter. Despite repeatedly telling Kevin that all these problems were now irrelevant he wouldn’t listen. Eventually she called Greg Marinovich who confessed that Kevin was a drug addict and most likely high.
On the morning of 18th April, the “Bang-Bang” photographers headed to Thokoza to cover an outbreak of violence. Carter had an interview scheduled in Johannesburg about his Pulitzer Prize so he left early.
Returning to Thokoza after lunch he turned on the radio to hear Ken Oosterbroek had been killed.
Ken’s death affected Kevin badly. He loved him like a twin brother. Kevin would say to people how much they looked alike. He felt that Ken was the good, successful twin whilst he was an inferior copy. He later told friends he should have taken the bullet, not Ken.
Not long after Ken’s death, Kevin had another opportunity to turn his life around as he jetted off to New York to collect his Pulitzer Prize.
After her earlier telephone conversation, Nancy Buirksi was apprehensive about meeting Kevin. However, upon meeting him she thought he was extremely charming and fun to be around.
By the time it actually came round to him receiving the prize Kevin knew the full extent of what it meant. Writing to his mother he said, “ I swear I got the most applause of anybody. It is the most precious thing and the highest acknowledgement of my work I could receive.”
Carter's Pulitzer winning photograph
The one area that dogged Kevin’s time in New York was the questions he could not answer about the picture. Did the girl make it? Why did he not help her?
The vulture picture seemed to be as much a curse as it was a prize. In an interview with American Photo magazine, Kevin said, “ This is my most successful image after ten years of taking pictures, but I do not want to hang it on my wall. I hate it”
Kevin returned from New York with everything he needed to finally become a leading professional photographer. He signed up with leading photo-press agency Sygma. Things were certainly looking up.
Sygma asked Kevin to cover Nelson Mandela and French president Francois Mitterand’s visit to Johannesburg. Whilst he was delighted with his shots, Sygma said he sent the film off too late for deadlines and the pictures were not of a high quality.
This was all it took for Kevin to slide back into depression. He thought every picture would be judged by the benchmark of his vulture picture and that he would never reach such a high again.
Sygma’s secured him an assignment for Time magazine. They wanted him to travel to Mozambique to record Nelson Mandela’s first trip to another country.
Kevin missed his flight then, six days later; on the return flight he left the undeveloped film on his seat. After returning to a friends house Carter was threatening to gas himself to death.
The next day Carter turned up unannounced at the home oft Ken Oosterbroek’s wife Monica. Carter spilt all his heartache out to her but, still coming to terms with her own grief, she was unable to console him very well. At around 5:30pm Kevin left. Monica seems to be the last person to see him alive.
At around 9pm, Carter parked his truck next to a tree at the Field and Study Center next to The Braamfonteinspruit River and gassed himself.
The suicide note he left stated “I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.”
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