World Press Photo Executive Director Joumana El Zein Khoury: 'The legend surrounding the Napalm Girl photo is being challenged'
In January, the film The Stringer, shown at the Sundance Festival in the United States, sparked controversy by claiming that one of the world's most famous photographs, The Terror of War – better known as Napalm Girl – had been wrongly credited to Nick Ut of the Associated Press (AP) when it was actually taken by another Vietnamese photographer, Nguyen Thanh Nghe. Since then, AP has published its own investigation and decided to maintain credit to Ut. However, World Press Photo, which runs a prestigious annual photojournalism competition and awarded the image in 1973, took a different path: It no longer attributes the image to Ut, though it has not reassigned credit to another photographer. The organization's executive director, Joumana El Zein Khoury, explained the reasoning behind the decision.
Why did World Press Photo feel the need to take a position on the 'Napalm Girl' photograph?
Our organization has existed for 70 years, and we take questions of transparency and accuracy very seriously. When doubts arise about a prize-winning photo, we have a process in place. So, when the documentary The Stringer was shown in January at the Sundance Festival, we conducted our own investigation. We waited for the AP to release its own findings before going public. And we found that there were valid questions surrounding this photo. We decided to keep the 1973 prize for the photograph, but have suspended the attribution until further evidence emerges.
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LeMonde
23-05-2025
- LeMonde
World Press Photo Executive Director Joumana El Zein Khoury: 'The legend surrounding the Napalm Girl photo is being challenged'
In January, the film The Stringer, shown at the Sundance Festival in the United States, sparked controversy by claiming that one of the world's most famous photographs, The Terror of War – better known as Napalm Girl – had been wrongly credited to Nick Ut of the Associated Press (AP) when it was actually taken by another Vietnamese photographer, Nguyen Thanh Nghe. Since then, AP has published its own investigation and decided to maintain credit to Ut. However, World Press Photo, which runs a prestigious annual photojournalism competition and awarded the image in 1973, took a different path: It no longer attributes the image to Ut, though it has not reassigned credit to another photographer. The organization's executive director, Joumana El Zein Khoury, explained the reasoning behind the decision. Why did World Press Photo feel the need to take a position on the 'Napalm Girl' photograph? Our organization has existed for 70 years, and we take questions of transparency and accuracy very seriously. When doubts arise about a prize-winning photo, we have a process in place. So, when the documentary The Stringer was shown in January at the Sundance Festival, we conducted our own investigation. We waited for the AP to release its own findings before going public. And we found that there were valid questions surrounding this photo. We decided to keep the 1973 prize for the photograph, but have suspended the attribution until further evidence emerges.
Euronews
20-05-2025
- Euronews
Who really took the Napalm Girl photo? Iconic image credit 'suspended'
More than 50 years after Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning image of a nine-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing a napalm attack in the South Vietnamese village of Trảng Bàng, a prestigious photography organisation has cast fresh doubt over who actually took it. World Press Photo, which awarded the image its 1973 Photo of the Year, recently announced that it has suspended its attribution to Ut, following the release of a new documentary, The Stringer, that challenges the long-accepted account of the photo's origins. The organisation said its independent investigation raised questions regarding Ut's role and suggested that two Vietnamese photographers, Nguyen Thanh Nghe - highlighted in The Stringer - and Huynh Cong Phuc, may have been better positioned to take the image. The Stringer, which premiered at Sundance in January earlier this year, claims Nghe sold the photo to AP's Saigon bureau chief for $20 and a print, and forensic experts from the French NGO Index also weighed in, concluding it's 'highly unlikely' that Nick Ut took the photo based on comparisons with other images credited to him that day. 'We conclude that the level of doubt is too significant to maintain the existing attribution,' said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo. 'At the same time, lacking conclusive evidence pointing definitively to another photographer, we cannot reassign authorship, either.' Ut will not be asked to return his cash prize from the World Press Photo 1973 Photo of the Year. The Associated Press, where Ut worked at the time, have said that after conducting two internal investigations it couldn't find any definitive proof to strip Ut's credit and no compelling evidence anyone else took the photo. 'We understand World Press Photo has taken different action based on the same available information, and that is their prerogative,' the statement said. 'There is no question over AP's ownership of the photo.'
France 24
16-05-2025
- France 24
World Press Photo suspends credit for 'Napalm Girl' picture
The organisation, which awards one of the world's most prestigious photojournalism prizes, said it carried out its own investigation into the haunting 1972 photo -- which shows a nine-year-old girl fleeing naked from a napalm strike -- after the premiere of the film "The Stringer". The documentary chronicles an investigation into rumours that the image, which helped change global perceptions of the US war in Vietnam, was taken by a little-known local freelancer, not the Associated Press (AP) staff photographer Nick Ut, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo. World Press Photo, which awarded its own Photo of the Year prize to Ut in 1973 for the black-and-white image -- whose official title is "The Terror of War" -- said the film had "prompted deep reflection" at the organisation. After investigating from January to May, it determined that "based on analysis of location, distance, and the camera used on that day", two other photographers "may have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut". "World Press Photo has suspended the attribution of 'The Terror of War' to Nick Ut, from today," it said in a statement. The organisation named the two other photographers as Nguyen Thanh Nghe and Huynh Cong Phuc, both present for the infamous scene in the southern village of Trang Bang on June 8, 1972. In "The Stringer", which premiered at the Sundance film festival in January, Nguyen told the documentary's makers he was certain the photo was his. AP, which said earlier this month it would continue crediting the photo to Ut, said in a statement it stood by that decision. But it acknowledged its own investigation had raised "real questions that we may never be able to answer" about the picture's authorship. "We have found that it is impossible to prove exactly what happened that day on the road or in the bureau over 50 years ago," it said. Ut insisted the image was his in a February Facebook post, calling claims to the contrary "a slap in the face". The girl in the picture, Kim Phuc, survived her injuries, and is today a Canadian citizen and outspoken advocate for child war victims. World Press Photo emphasised that the authenticity of the image itself was not in question. "It is without question that this photograph represents a real moment in history that continues to reverberate in Vietnam, the United States, and globally," said executive director Joumana El Zein Khoury. © 2025 AFP
