The Bang Bang Club

"They're right. All those people who say it's our job to just sit and watch people die. They're right" -Kevin Carter

As a photojournalist there is always contraversy surrounding the ethics behind the picture. The Bang Bang Club is one of the most moving movies I have watched in a long time. The history of South Africa is grey and somewhat cloudy for those who were to young to live through it and this movie gives a slightly grim but very accurate look into South Africa between 1990 and 1994. During this time the there were brutal attacks based on race. Apartheid....

Personally I have to thank God for the fact that I was too young to see the torture and evil that was happening in South Africa during this time! The movie shows us what really happened in the Johannesburg townships, the very townships that everyone was too affraid to venture into but where so many were trapped and defensless.

The Bang Bang Club was made up of four brave men, namely Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Ken Oosterbroek and Kevin Carter. I say brave because not only did they put their lives on the line everyday to get the perfect shot but they also dared to do what no other photojournalists had done before-show the world the pictures that South Africa was trying to hide!

Is there harm in showing the world graphic pictures of a bloody South Africa? Maybe. But more harm is done in pretending that it never happened. There are people that are still affected by what happened and the only way for them to come to peace with this injustice is to face the fact that it occured and move forward.

For me, the movie was a huge eye opener into the ethical debate surrounding the morals of photojournalists. I believe that it is the job of a photojournalist to capture the picture, just as it is the job of a farmer to plough and a teacher to teach. The members of the Bang Bang Club battled with the fine line between their job and humanity on a daily basis but I beleive that they did the world justice by showing them what no one really wanted to see. Afterall, how are we going to heal something that is so scarred when we all bury our heads in the ground?