Who took the ‘napalm girl’ photo? New Sundance documentary disputes original credit
Who took the ‘napalm girl’ photo? New Sundance documentary disputes original credit
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After half a century, a Vietnamese freelance photographer, has claimed he is the real creator of the infamous image, sold for $20 and credited to an AP staff photographer. One of the most influential photos in history has come under attack in a new documentary to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.
![[A Vietnamese freelance photographer Nguyen Than Nghe has claimed he is the original creator of the image]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/16/21/Media_Photograph_Challenged_74626.jpg)
The Pulitzer Prize-winning picture of nine-year-old Kim Phuc, taken on 8 June 1972, captures her running down a street in Trang Bang, south Vietnam as she flees an American napalm attack. She is naked, screaming and has her hands outstretched in the haunting image. Colloquially dubbed the “napalm girl”, and officially titled The Terror of War, it sparked protests and an international conversation about the horrors of war and US military action in Vietnam.
Originally reported to have been taken for the Associated Press by photographer Nick Ut, a new documentary, The Stringer, suggests that the actual creator of the image is Vietnamese freelance photographer, Nguyen Than Nghe. Nghe claims he was working as a driver for an NBC news crew when he visited the town of Trang Bang where he captured the image of Phuc screaming down the street. In the film, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, he reports selling the image to AP for $20 and was given a print of the photo in exchange. He says the memento was later destroyed by his wife.
Led by husband and wife Gary Knight, founder of the VII Foundation, and producer Fiona Turner, the film was directed by Vietnamese American filmmaker Bao Nguyen. It investigates these claims and concludes that Ut did not take the picture, claims that AP and Ut vehemently challenge.
