A young Vietnamese girl, naked and Wailing, was wounded by a napalm, running away from the war with other terrified children-this picture, titled“Girl in the fire,” is a reminder to Americans of the horrors of the Vietnam War, pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo of the Year for journalism, 1973. However, the documentary“Stringer,” which premiered earlier this year, has put the photographer in question.
This photo was taken on June 8,1972, on a road in Thang Phang Phang Village, Tây Ninh, Vietnam, by a photographer identified as Nick Ut Kung Wu, then a Vietnamese photojournalist for the Associated Press. According to a report in the New York Times on the 16th, for decades, in interviews and other occasions, Huang has talked openly about the experience of taking the photo and his friendship with the nine-year-old girl in the picture, Phan Thi Kim Phuc. However, the documentary“Stringer” claims that the photograph was taken by a freelance photographer and incorrectly signed by an Associated Press Photo Editor.
According to the New York Times, art news and other US media reports, the World Press Photo Foundation said on the 16th that several months of research had shown that based on analysis of location, distance and the cameras used on the day of the shoot, the agency found that two other photojournalists“May be better qualified than Huang to take the photo” and suspended Huang’s signature on the photo. Art News noted that this was the first such move by the agency in 70 years.
AP said Tuesday that after two investigations, the agency believes that if there is no conclusive evidence that Huang did not take the photo, it will continue to believe that the photo was created by him.
Although there is no definitive picture of the photographer, WWF stresses that the authenticity of the image itself is not a problem. “There is no doubt that this photo represents a real moment in history, one that continues to reverberate in Vietnam, the United States and around the world,” the agency’s executive director said, according to Agence France-presse