Passion (continued)

I was captivated (and haunted) by this 1994 Time Magazine article on the Life and Death of Kevin Carter, a relatively unknown photojournalist who covered the Apartheid conflict in South Africa at its most bloody and horrific. Carter, above all, was a man driven by a passion for his craft.


I am a big believer in passion, having written about it before on this blog.


I am drawn to the way it brings out the very best in people. Unfortunately for Kevin Carter, his passion to do the right thing (expose the evils of Apartheid through gripping photography) was overwhelmed by his unstable mental state as he claimed his own life in the summer of 1994, arguably at the height of influence.


I find it hard to draw any real comparisons between the work we do at RIGHTSLEEVE and the demanding work of a war photographer. However, what it did reinforce for me is that with passion, one can do anything. In Carter's case, this meant winning the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and, in doing so, shining a spotlight on the famine in Sudan with this photograph.


Passion brought out the best in Kevin Carter. His accomplishments still endure several years after his untimely death.