Tom stoddart

Tom Stoddart's The Starving Child: Analysis By Raghu Kalra

Analysis: Captured during the 1998 famine in Sudan, "The Starving child" expresses strongly how bad the situation was prevailing in Sudan. It was taken at the Medecins San Frontieres [MSF is an international NFO which was running a feeding centre in Aijeb], which was the feeding center at Aijep, a city in Sudan. The number of deaths during the famine vary from 70,000)1 to 250,000 2 in south . Even though Sudan was supposed to run a relief operation, suffering from an internal civil war between Islamic government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army the relief efforts by the government were virtually none. Tom Stoddart, without commission, made his way to Southern Sudan to capture the pain of the people.

On returning home his pictures were first publish in "The Guardian" on August 12, 1998 and helped raise ÂŁ100,000 for the relief efforts. He had clicked 40 rolls worth pictures and finally ten were put up in an exhibition "Imagine Famine exhibition". Before these pictures were published, the West was almost unaware about the gravity of the situation in Sudan.

The major reason for the famine of 1998 was the ignorance shown by the government towards human rights during the civil war, and drought. Another reason for the occurrence of the famine was that the refugees of the war, which were in huge numbers were unable to grow their own food. The poorest conditions were there in the place where this picture was taken, Bahr el Ghazal. More than 70,000 people died in this region itself. Kerubino Kwaynying Bol, the founder of the rebel movement was also blamed for the famine as he had forced people in the drought effected area to keep fighting. This drought further escalated to finally become a famine. The money that should have been used in relief efforts and for agriculture was being used to buy arms and ammunitions for the rebel movement.

In his Image, Stoddart has been able to capture very effectively the then political and social scenario of Sudan. It aptly shows how the rulers and the politicians (Showed by the man in white clothes) of Sudan were snatching from the poor(the malnutritioned boy) and were benefitting themselves The fingers of the rich man and the stick pointing downwards show the sense of power of the rich man has over the vulnerable poor. Stodart says, " ‘it’s a symbolic image of Africa as it shows a man with a stick keeping everyone else down. The picture works because of several

components – the man’s finger pointing down on the stick, the fact that you can see the maize through the bag and the completely disdainful expression on the boy’s face " "The little boy has no rights, shown by this man stealing the boy’s food. Documentary photography, like this photo, is often filled with powerful imagery of suffering, and for the most part, images we do not necessarily understand since we do not experience what the photograph depicts" 3 Stoddart’s picture brings the bad news to the world, because people did not want to listen to the warnings. They did not think of helping until it was too late. The photograph show how delicate the human body is. one can see the boy’s bones, and how malnourished he is. Not only is the boy's body is in a bad shape, His self esteem is also going down as he begs the man who stole his food

During the short three month period there was a cease fire when finally the relief material from around the globe started coming into Sudan. This was also the time when a small number of journalists and photographers were able to enter the famine-affected areas. This was the time when Tom Staddart, then in his mid 40s entered Sudan and clicked this picture. At first glance one can observe that the child in this image is malnourished, but one is unable to understand what really is happening. It is only after one reads the caption of the picture that he realizes the scenario. The caption reads " A well-nourished Sudanese man steals maize from a starving child during food distribution at a medecins sans frontieres feeding centre, Ajiep, Sudan, in 1998 " Stoddart had received some criticism that he should have intervened and helped the boy, but he was quoted saying "The picture shows something that happens every second in Africa and

other Third World countries. My job is to bring back telling images. This one moved people and still does, so I did what I was there to do. I’m very proud of my work from Sudan" Here Stoddart has followed the line of many other photojournalists who have worked in conflict areas. They get so used to seeing suffering around that they start becoming indifferent to it. It is clearly visible in photographers like kevin carter who did not help the child to reach the feeding center 4 , and Steve Mc Curry who was not even aware of the name of the girl who he was photographing for National Geographic. 5

References:        

1

: Famine: a short history| Princeton University Press| p. 24 : http://www.visualsoc.net imaging-famine.org/sudan.htm 3 : Linfield, Susan. 2007. “The Ethics of Vision: Photojournalism and Human Rights.” Pp 15-28 4 : Time Magazine | September 12, 1994 5 : The Afghan Girl| National Geographic Magazine http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9804/10/africa.drought/ April 10, 1998 World Press Photo Archives 2

Images: World press Photos Kevin Carter National Geographic Magazine