Kevin Carter, the photographer of the iconic photo, was a South African born to a fairly affluent family who lived in a predominantly white section of the country. He started off his career in sports photography, but eventually migrated to capturing photos that were somewhat more controversial and shocking.  According to Time magazine, in 1984, Carter “aligned himself with the crop of young, white photojournalists who wanted to expose the brutality of apartheid -- a mission that had once been the almost exclusive calling of South Africa's black photographers” (“The Life and Death of Kevin Carter”). This group of photographers, through their experience in capturing brutally dangerous events, was dubbed “The Bang Bang Club”. In the mid 1980’s, Carter was the first person to photograph a public execution by means of “necklacing”; a process in which a gasoline-filled tire is placed around a a victim’s neck and set on fire,  and so began his career as a more radical photographer. Carter later said of those photos he took, "I was appalled at what they were doing. I was appalled at what I was doing. But then people started talking about those pictures... then I felt that maybe my actions hadn't been at all bad. Being a witness to something this horrible wasn't necessarily such a bad thing to do” (“Covering War in a Free Society”). Clearly, Carter grappled with the difficulty of capturing more painful moments—the issues of morality and struggles with the legitimacy of photographing these events had ebbed and flowed within him throughout his career.