FILM A SNAPSHOT OF JOURNALIST'S TORMENTBy Cecily Burt, Staff Writer

TWO MONTHS after South African photographer Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for a gut-wrenching shot of a starving, razor-thin Sudanese girl being stalked by a vulture, he should have been on top of the world. The photograph became an icon for mass starvation in Africa, and was shown over and over again throughout the world.

But Carter was haunted by his success and the images of his subjects. Although he was a member of South Africa's Bang Bang Club -- a guerrilla band of in-your-face photographers notorious for snapping pictures of squalid, dangerous apartheid-era townships and tortures committed against the people who lived there -- Carter's tough-guy image was a facade.

Dan Krauss of El Cerrito, 31, a news photographer and photojournalist, tells Carter's compelling story in a documentary screening at the Grand Lake Theater tonight as part of the 3rd annual Oakland International Film Festival.

The 27-minute film represents Krauss' film making debut and earned him an honorable mention for best short documentary. He made the film for his thesis project at the University of California, Berkeley's graduate school of journalism.

He said the subject called out to him, mainly because of the tragedy and the mystery of Carter's life and death. No one knew much about the circumstances, and the people close to Carter did not want to talk about it at the time.

Ten years later, Carter's family, friends and colleagues were ready, much to Krauss' relief.
"It was a mystery, and the question became, why would you take your own life after having reached the highest point in your career?" Krauss said. "But then you have to factor in all the other amazing things that were happening in South Africa at that time, so to me it became a moral story of what it means to be a jour- nalist and a human being under these trying times.
"The story really called to me. I think every photographer knows about the girl and his picture, but I didn't know much else about him."

Carter was a sensitive person, and he was haunted and wounded by harsh criticism from many who wanted to know why he hadn't helped the girl in the picture. That ongoing debate continues to this day whenever photographers show up to chronicle horrifying events of torture, death and starvation around the world. Photographers are the vultures, preying on people's misery to get their pictures, critics say. Why don't they step out from behind the lens and help?

"What's so important is that the picture of the girl and the vulture did so much to show the world what was happening in Sudan, to put it on the map," Krauss said. "What people need to realize ... at the moment there is a moral dilemma between taking pictures and helping the person on the other side of the camera, but sometimes ... more people are helped because of those pictures."

In Carter's disturbing photo, it appears as though the child is alone, the vulture waiting for her last dying breath. In fact the photo was taken at a feeding station, and hundreds of starving children were nearby.

The child wore a wristband that indicated she had already visited the station. After he shot the photo, Carter shooed away the vulture, watched the girl walk away, squatted under a tree, smoked a cigarette and broke down," Krauss said.

"Kevin could not have done anything (to help her)," Krauss said. "Before labeling photographers as vultures, people should know the context in which the picture was made, and the full benefit of the message. The issue is much more complex."

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