The photo is indelible, and its importance unmistakable: a Vietnamese girl burned by napalm, naked and screaming, her arms outstretched in despair. It drove home the consequences of the Vietnam War to readers in the United States, where it won a Pulitzer Prize.
But who took the photo, widely known as Napalm Girl? That is the question dividing the photojournalism community 53 years after it was taken.
The image, from a road in the village of Trang Bang, Vietnam, has been credited to Nick Ut, a photographer who worked for The Associated Press. In the decades since, Mr. Ut has repeatedly talked publicly, in interviews and elsewhere, about his role in capturing the photo and his later friendship with its subject, Kim Phuc Phan Thi.
Yet a documentary that premiered early this year, “The Stringer,” set off investigations into the creator of the image. The film argues that a freelance photographer took the image, and that an Associated Press photo editor misattributed it to Mr. Ut.
On Friday, the World Press Photo Foundation, a prominent international nonprofit, weighed in. It said a monthslong investigation had found that two other photojournalists “may have been better positioned to take the photograph than Nick Ut.”
Mr. Ut’s lawyer, James Hornstein, has repeatedly disputed the film’s claims and called them “defamatory.” He said in a statement that the World Press Photo decision was “deplorable and unprofessional” and “reveals how low the organization has fallen.” Mr. Hornstein declined to make Mr. Ut available for an interview.
The Associated Press, after spending nearly a year investigating, said this month that it would continue to credit the photo to Mr. Ut. A lengthy report from the investigation said he could have taken the photo, and cites evidence to support that position, but concluded that no proof had been found. It also says other photographers could have taken the photo.
“As our report explains in great detail, there’s simply not enough hard evidence or fact to remove the credit from Nick Ut, and it’s impossible for anyone to know with certainty how exactly things played out on the road in the space of a few minutes over half a century ago,” said Derl McCrudden, The A.P.’s vice president and head of global news production.
The controversy over the photo, officially titled “The Terror of War,” began when “The Stringer” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film, directed by Bao Nguyen, followed Gary Knight, a journalist, as he investigated a claim from a former A.P. photo editor, Carl Robinson, who said he was ordered to misattribute the photo to Mr. Ut in 1972. The end of the film shows Mr. Knight writing a message claiming that Nguyen Thanh Nghe, a freelance photographer, took the photo.
In an interview for this article, Mr. Nguyen said, “People need to have an open mind, need to see the film and all of the forensic reports and judge for themselves where the truth lies in this story.”
The attention to the film produced a quick and immediate pushback from Mr. Ut’s lawyer. It also led The Associated Press to release an earlier report in the days leading up to the premiere, saying, “The A.P. has no reason to believe anyone other than Ut took the photo.”
The Associated Press took a closer look at the issue after reviewing the film. The much longer report, released this month, reconstructed the scene using satellite imagery and photos on file from the day.
Both Mr. Ut’s lawyer and the filmmakers behind “The Stringer” said the Associated Press report bolstered their arguments. Mr. Knight said the filmmakers were “more confident after the A.P. report that our reporting is strong and reliable than even before.” Mr. Hornstein said in an interview that the report “makes quite clear that the film, which calls itself a documentary, fails to meet documentary film standards.”
“Both A.P. reports list very strong evidence that Nick Ut took the photo, including every eyewitness on the road that day other than Mr. Nghe,” Mr. Hornstein said. He added that living eyewitnesses from the A.P. offices and written testimony by now-deceased A.P. staff members also supported Mr. Ut’s credit.
The filmmakers behind “The Stringer” are updating the film to incorporate new developments. They’re also in negotiations for worldwide distribution.
Even though World Press Photo is acknowledging doubts about who took the photo, the organization is not stripping “The Terror of War” of its “Photo of the Year” award, which it conferred in 1973, its chief executive, Joumana El Zein Khoury, said in an interview. (Christiaan Triebert, a visual investigations reporter at The New York Times, contributed to the review as an independent analyst.)
To remove the award, Ms. Khoury said, the organization would have to be sure Mr. Ut didn’t take the photo, a conclusion that’s impossible to reach all these years later.
“While this may not be a perfect solution,” she said, “I think it’s a thoughtful and principled one.”
Benjamin Mullin reports for The Times on the major companies behind news and entertainment. Contact him securely on Signal at +1 530-961-3223 or at [email protected].
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