After half a century of public silence, a freelance photographer from Vietnam has claimed he took one of the most renowned and impactful photos of the 20th century – the image of a naked girl fleeing a napalm attack in South Vietnam that has long been credited to a staff photographer from The Associated Press. Nguyen Thanh Nghe claimed authorship of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “napalm girl” photograph, known as The Terror of War, in the new documentary, The Stringer, and on the sidelines of its premiere at the weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The iconic photograph, taken in 1972, at the centre of a dispute over authorship.
Credit: Nick Ut Meanwhile, AP has conducted its own investigation and concluded it has no reason to believe that anyone other than the long-credited photographer, Nick Ut, took the picture. Nguyen joined the filmmakers for the post-screening Q&A where he said, through a translator, “I took the photo”. The audience cheered enthusiastically.
He did not say why he had waited so long to make the claim. AP said it was calling on the filmmakers to release their contributors, including Nguyen, from non-disclosure agreements and to share a visual analysis they had commissioned, and the film itself, to enable a full assessment of the claim. “We cannot state more clearly that The Associated Press is only interested in the facts and a truthful history of this iconic photo,” the agency said.
Nguyen claims he took the iconic photo o.
