World Press Photo Pauses Credit For Napalm Girl, Historic Vietnam War Image

NDTV

20-05-2025

One of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War may not have been taken by the photographer it has long been credited to.
World Press Photo has suspended its long-held credit to Associated Press (AP) photographer Nick Ut for the famous 'Napalm Girl' photograph, officially titled 'The Terror of War'. The picture of nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc running naked and severely burned after a napalm attack won Mr Ut a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
Now the organisation, which named the picture "Photo of the Year" in 1973, announced on Friday that it was pausing attribution to Mr Ut following a detailed review.
A report by World Press Photo said, "Visual and technical evidence leans toward" a new theory that Vietnamese freelance photographer Nguyen Thanh Nghe may have taken the photo instead.
During the Vietnam War, napalm, a highly flammable gel, was widely used by US and South Vietnamese forces to destroy enemy hideouts, often causing horrific burns and civilian casualties. One such attack in 1972 led to the iconic 'Napalm Girl' photo, capturing the war's brutal impact.
The photo was published worldwide the day after it was taken. Over the years, Mr Ut stayed in touch with Ms Kim Phuc (the 9-year-old in the photo), who survived her burns and was granted asylum in Canada in 1992.
In a 2022 interview with CNN, Mr Ut recalled the moment he took the photo, saying, "I saw Kim running and she [screamed] in Vietnamese, 'Too hot! Too hot!'" He added that after snapping the picture, he put down his camera, helped her and other injured children into his van, and drove them to a hospital.
The renewed controversy follows the release of 'The Stringer', a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025. The film suggests it was Mr Nghe, not Mr Ut, who captured the moment on June 8, 1972, near the village of Trang Bang.
According to the film, Mr Nghe was one of several photographers present at a checkpoint when South Vietnamese planes mistakenly dropped napalm on a group of civilians, including Kim Phuc.
The film claims Mr Nghe sold the photo to the AP, and that editors later credited it to Mr Ut, the agency's Saigon-based staff photographer. In its announcement, World Press Photo cited the documentary and a new visual analysis in its decision to pause the attribution. The foundation said "the level of doubt is too significant to maintain the existing attribution," though it said there is still no conclusive proof to assign the credit elsewhere.
"This suspension will remain in place unless further evidence can clearly confirm or refute the original authorship," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo.
Nick Ut has firmly denied the claims. His lawyer, Jim Hornstein, called the decision "deplorable and unprofessional," and said Mr Nghe's claim is "unsupported by a scintilla of corroborating evidence or eyewitness."
Earlier this month, the AP released a 96-page report based on interviews, technical analysis, 3D modelling, and old photo negatives. The report found "no definitive evidence" to change the credit for the photo. It said that because of missing information and the passage of time, it's "impossible to fully prove" that Mr Ut took the picture, but giving credit to Mr Nghe would need "several leaps of faith."
World Press Photo said there are "strong reasons" to question the current credit. Their review, with help from the research group Index, raised doubts about which camera was used, where Mr Ut was at the time, and if he could have taken the photo at all.
Index said Mr Ut would have had to "take the photo, run 60 meters (197 feet), and come back calmly" very quickly, which they called "highly unlikely." The AP disagreed, saying the distance was probably closer to 33 meters.
There is also a chance that a third photographer, military shooter Huynh Cong Phuc, who sometimes sold photos, took the picture. The AP said all three photographers could have been in position to take it.
The Pulitzer Prize Board said it "does not anticipate future action" on Mr Ut's award. "The Pulitzer Prizes depend on submitting news organisations to determine the authorship of their entries," the board said, citing the AP's findings.