It is a photo that has been etched in the visual canon of the first “television war“: A group of children fled a napalm attack near the city of Trảng Bàng, including a nude nine -year -old girl who storms forward, discoloured her skin and peels after being burned by the deadly weapon.
The photo of June 1972, officially entitled ‘Terror of War’, came to serve as a powerful symbol of the atrocities of the war. For more than 50 years, the Associated Press Has the photo attributed to Huynh Cong “Nick” út, who worked from the Saigon Bureau of the news agency at the time of the attack that was wrongly carried out by South Vietnamese troops on their own troops and citizens. The photo, whose main subject is now 62-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc, is just as decorated as a work of visual journalism can be; In 1973 it won the Pulitzer prize and was named the World Press photo of the year. The year before the image ran on the front page of the New York Times.
Today, May 16, however, World Press Photo announced It would no longer credit if the photographer of the image after the research documentary The stringer (2025), directed by Bob Nguyen, raises doubts about his authorship. The film, which premiered earlier this year in Sundance, suggested that one is overlooked NBC Stringer Nguyễn Th’nh Nghệ has recorded the image instead.
“While one man was celebrated worldwide for a photo that formed the understanding of the world of the war in Vietnam, the other lived in silence,” said Nguyen, the director of the film, in a rack Today in response to the decision.
In the movie, first AP Photo -Editor Carl Robinson, who was responsible for crediting út, issues uncertainty about the attribution. NGHệ was a freelance journalist with training as a military photographer who is said to be reportedly DreP Út on the day that the disputed photo was recorded.
A AP Spokesperson told Hyperallergic That according to the standards of the agency there should be ‘proof and security’ that út did not take the photo to change the credit.
“We have discovered that it is impossible to prove exactly what happened that day on the road or in the desk more than 50 years ago,” said the spokesperson.
The APThe ownership of the photo is not up for discussion, the spokesperson added, and the choice for World Press photo to change their credit is up to them.
By analysis of evidence presented in the film and the APS research From the image, World Press photo concluded that Nguyễn Thành nghệ or another photographer, Huỳnh Công Phúc, “Perhaps better positioned to take the photo” than út. According to the organization, 16 people were present along Highway 1, where the children ran, including several television teams and reporters.
World Press Photo said today in his explanation that his employees have assessed visual material, including film images of the scene and satellite images, which gave insight into the possible location of the photographers on site. According to findings of a Paris Research Group Index, which quotes World Press photo, ú was probably too far away from the children to have taken the photo. However, there are gaps, the organization recognized, in the evidence that is needed to determine final evidence.
The AP brought a 96 pages research In the photo last week, in which the Agency concluded that there was insufficient evidence to discredit me.
In his statement, The stringer Director Nguyen celebrated the decision of World Press Photo.
“It confirms the need to look again at the stories we thought we knew,” said Nguyen. “And it is a step in the direction of giving Nguyễn Th’nh nghệ the recognition he has been earning for a long time.”
