{"id":167564,"date":"2022-06-08T15:11:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T14:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/?p=167564"},"modified":"2022-06-08T15:11:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T14:11:51","slug":"nick-ut-50-years-on-the-story-of-the-napalm-girl-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/latest\/photo-news\/nick-ut-50-years-on-the-story-of-the-napalm-girl-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Ut: 50 years on – the story of the ‘Napalm Girl’ photo"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark the 50th anniversary of one of the most iconic news photographs of all time \u2013 Napalm Girl<\/em> by Nick Ut \u2013 here’s an exclusive interview by Amateur Photographer<\/em>\u2019s deputy editor Geoff Harris in which Ut tells the story of Napalm Girl<\/em>…<\/h2>\n

Nick Ut needs no introduction to anyone with an interest in documentary photography, or the often-traumatic history of the 20th century…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if his name is not as familiar as it used to be, his image of screaming Vietnamese children running from a napalm attack in 1972 can never be forgotten. Nor should it be.<\/p>\n

Few photographs have helped to change history, but what became known as Napalm Girl<\/em> – it was originally titled The Terror of War<\/em>\u00a0– definitely did.<\/p>\n

While the Vietnam War had generated lots of shocking images before – including Eddie Adams’ shocking photograph of the summary execution of a Viet Cong suspect in downtown Saigon<\/a>\u00a0and images of the 1968 My Lai massacre – its publication finally exploded the \u2018bright shining lie\u2019 that the US had weighed in to somehow save the South Vietnamese population from communism.<\/p>\n

How could the US claim it was saving anyone when its weaponry was being used to burn local kids alive? And Napalm Girl<\/em> was the photograph to prove it.<\/p>\n

Ut\u2019s image soon became a touchstone for international outrage about the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n\t\t

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Nick Ut working as a war correspondent for Associated Press in 1972, aged 21<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Pulitzer & World Press Photo prizes<\/h3>\n

Among many prizes Ut’s iconic image won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the World Press Photo of the Year in 1973.<\/p>\n

In fact, 1973 was the same year as the Paris Peace Accord was signed between the US, the US-backed South Vietnamese regime and the communist north.<\/p>\n

Two years later the South Vietnamese government fell and the country was unified under communist rule.<\/p>\n

Along with many other southern Vietnamese linked to the US-backed government or Western media organisations, Ut fled his home country in 1975 for a new life in the US as a photographer with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

A chance meeting<\/h3>\n

Fast-forward well over 40 years later (to 2020), and in one of those wonderful coincidences that make travel so rewarding, I bumped into Nick Ut at the famous Thien Hau temple in central Saigon\/Ho Chi Minh city.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d briefly stopped off in Vietnam on the way to Indonesia to give a talk for Leica, while I was there on holiday.<\/p>\n

With his mop of silver-white hair, piercing eyes and pricey rangefinders, Ut was instantly recognisable, at least to this jet-lagged camera nerd.<\/p>\n

Much to my delight, he agreed to chat, and even better, then spent a good 15 minutes taking pictures of my somewhat bemused girlfriend around the temple grounds.<\/p>\n

His passion for photography is very much still there, as is the old determination and steeliness; I pitied the temple jobsworth who got a withering stare and what I assume was a pithy putdown in Vietnamese when he asked Ut to stop blocking a path.<\/p>\n

This is a guy who\u2019d probably been a permanent fixture on the Viet Cong\u2019s hit list, so good luck to any bureaucrat who takes him on.<\/p>\n\t\t

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South Vietnamese forces follow behind terrified children, including 9-year-old Kim Phuc, centre, as they run down Route 1 near Trang Bang after an aerial napalm attack on suspected Viet Cong hiding places. The Terror of War, aka Napalm Girl. \u00a9 Nick Ut\/AP\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Family tradition<\/h3>\n

Nick Ut was born Huynh Cong Ut in the Mekong Delta region in 1951, a couple of hours\u2019 drive from Saigon.<\/p>\n

In still heavily accented English, Ut explained, \u2018My older brother was an AP photographer and he was my influence in wanting to become a photographer. Although\u00a0he was killed while covering the war in 1965, I still wanted to become like him. It is through the grace of God that the\u00a0editors at AP gave me a job as a\u00a016-year-old, processing film and\u00a0making prints. I learned from\u00a0those editors and from looking at the images coming in from the war.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Given the tragic loss of his elder brother, Ut admits it was very hard at first but, fortunately for the history of documentary photography, the Associated Press Bureau in Saigon recognised his talent.<\/p>\n

Originally the top AP photographer and picture editor Horst Faas (who was photography director of AP’s Saigon Bureau) refused to take Nick Ut on, not wanting to have the blood of two brothers on his hands.<\/p>\n

However, Horst Faas relented and a 16-year-old Nick Ut began working in the AP darkrooms.<\/p>\n

Ut revealed, \u2018It was something I had to do. I very much wanted to be like my brother. I wanted to continue his relentless work showing the atrocities of war.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Horrific scene<\/h3>\n

Eventually, Ut worked his way from the darkroom to the battlefield, surviving several injuries until that fateful day \u2013 8 June 1972 \u2013 in the town of Trang Bang, just off Highway 1, around 30 miles outside of Saigon.<\/p>\n

The area was full of insurgent Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese regulars, so the US-backed South Vietnamese forces dropped napalm on what they\u2019d identified as groups of communist fighters.<\/p>\n

Just another day in the Vietnam War, then, but tragically the spotters failed to realise that there were a number of refugees taking shelter in a nearby temple.<\/p>\n

When the napalm hit, a group of local children were also caught up the strike.<\/p>\n

Amidst the chaos and horror of this scene, Ut had the presence of mind to get the shot of a lifetime, but then, in an act of utter heroism, put his camera aside to help a nine-year-old girl, Kim Ph\u00fac, whose clothes had been burned off.<\/p>\n

Ut recounted, \u2018If I had not helped her, I believe she would died. Kim Ph\u00fac\u2019s injuries were very severe, so I had to act quickly and decisively. I immediately took her to a hospital in nearby Cu Chi where they first refused to help her, but once I showed my press pass, they took care of her. We\u2019ve been friends ever since.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t

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Nick Ut in Vietnam, 2020. \u00a9 Geoff Harris\/Amateur Photographer<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Fighting for publication<\/h3>\n

We mentioned AP\u2019s Horst Faas, and how this great champion of conflict photography became instrumental in getting Ut\u2019s image published across the world.<\/p>\n

Ut noted, \u2018As soon as I clicked the shutter, I knew I had something special. It took Horst Faas to fight for it to be published, but fight he did\u2026 and the rest is history.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The first AP picture editor who had seen Ut’s developed image rejected it, fearing that Kim Ph\u00fac\u2019s nudity meant it could never be published in the US.<\/p>\n

Unbelievably, the image was almost binned, but Horst Faas, along with AP correspondent Peter Arnett, returned from lunch in the nick of time and realised they had something very special on their hands.<\/p>\n

On their orders, it then went from Saigon to Tokyo to New York by radiophoto transmitter, and soon was horrifying the world, much to the discomfort of the US military and President Nixon\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

Nixon even considered passing Ut’s picture off as fake news and is heard speculating on one of the fateful White House tapes that the photo was \u2018fixed\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Some kind of happy ending<\/h3>\n

Thankfully, the veracity of the image was proven, and even more thankfully, Kim Ph\u00fac (now known as Phan Th\u1ecb Kim Ph\u00fac) survived her life-changing injuries and went on to be a UN Goodwill Ambassador.<\/p>\n

Her brother, the sobbing boy to the left of the frame, also lived to tell the tale.<\/p>\n

Ut continued covering the war until 1975, racking up yet another injury when he returned to Trang Bang to follow up on the Kim Ph\u00fac story.<\/p>\n

Ut explained, \u2018I have many photos of the war. They are all very sad because most show how people suffer during wars\u2026 but I\u2019m proud of my entire body of work.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Following a stint in Tokyo, Ut settled in the US where he continued to work for the AP agency on all manner of projects.<\/p>\n

While some of them may have seemed a bit anticlimactic after his adventures in the Vietnam War, Ut is ever the practical professional. \u2018I began doing every type of photography that journalism encompasses. News, sports, celebrities\u2026 Everything was very hard work but enjoyable.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

You can watch a film about Nick Ut’s Napalm Girl<\/em> photograph below…<\/p>\n