Documentary Asserts ‘Napalm Girl’ Was Not Taken by Nick Ut, AP Refutes the Claims
In a pre-emptive strike against an upcoming documentary that casts aspersions on Nick Ut’s credit on the famous Napalm Girl photograph taken during the Vietnam War, the Associated Press has released a lengthy report re-asserting that Ut was indeed the photographer.
A documentary titled The Stringer is set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah next week. The film’s synopsis reads that director Bao Nguyen “follows a team of investigators seeking the photo’s true authorship.” While it doesn’t reveal which “iconic” image the film is about, PetaPixel understands that it is The Terror of War photo, better known as Napalm Girl, credited to Nick Ut.
The details held in the documentary are being kept under wraps but the Associated Press (AP) has released a 23-page report outlining its investigation into the photo’s provenance. The AP maintains that Ut is the author of the photo.
The Terror of War was taken in Trang Bang, South Vietnam, on June 8, 1972, and shows Phan Thi Kim Phuc running toward the camera away from a napalm strike. It is arguably the most famous image from the Vietnam War and one of the most famous photos of all time.
AP says that for the past six months, it has conducted its own “painstaking research” in response to the upcoming documentary. The American news agency says it has not seen the “full and detailed evidence” and claims the filmmakers demanded it sign an NDA in return for reviewing the material.
However, AP says that Gary Knight, co-founder of the VII photo agency, revealed that the assertions originate from former AP photo editor Carl Robinson who was on duty at the Saigon bureau when the negatives were first processed.
The established story of The Terror of War goes that upon seeing the photo, Robinson believed the full-frontal nudity in the image rendered it unusable. But he was overruled; first by his boss, chief of photos in Saigon Horst Faas, and then by AP’s photo chief Hal Buell in New York City.
Ut won both the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the 1973 World Press Photo of the Year for the image. AP says that Robinson never referenced the allegations in his book and even provides a photo purporting to show Robinson holding a bottle of champagne as the Saigon bureau celebrated Ut’s Pulitzer win in May 1973.
The AP says it has spoken to seven eyewitnesses who were present either at the scene of the photograph or in the Saigon bureau and none of them question Ut’s authorship of Napalm Girl. The agency adds that it has gathered all of the photographic and film evidence to compile a visual timeline of the day but acknowledges that the picture isn’t complete because of the analog era in which the event took place.
“Aware that the documentary filmmakers assert, contrary to the AP’s knowledge and contemporary accounts, that Ut did not take the photo, the AP stands prepared to review any evidence and take whatever remedial action might be needed if their thesis is proved true,” AP writes in it reports. “AP requests the filmmakers provide any evidence without preconditions.”
PetaPixel is in contact with the documentary filmmakers but, at the time of publication, is yet to receive any meaningful information. The film will premiere on January 25 at Sundance Film Festival.
Image credits: Header photo “The Terror of War” is in the public domain.