Rising doubt: A file photo of Vietnam War survivor Kim Phuc Phan Thi (left), also known as the ‘Napalm Girl’, posing with Ut (right) holding his 1972 Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo award-winning photograph. — AFP
World Press Photo said it removed US-Vietnamese photographer Nick Ut’s name as the person credited for one of history’s most iconic pictures, the Vietnam War image “Napalm Girl”, amid doubts over its authorship.
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 was taken by a little-known local freelancer, not Ut, the Associated Press (AP) staff photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo.
World Press Photo, which awarded its Photo of the Year prize to Ut in 1973 – whose official title is The Terror of War – said the film had “prompted deep reflection”.
After an investigation, 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.”
“World Press Photo has suspended the attribution of The Terror of War to Nick Ut, from today,” it said in a statement on Friday.
“It is possible that the author of the photograph will never be fully confirmed. The suspension of the authorship attribution stands unless it is proved otherwise.”
The organisation named the two other potential authors 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.
Nguyen said he was certain the photo was his in interviews for The Stringer, which premiered at the Sundance film festival.
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.
Ut insisted the image was his in a February Facebook post, calling claims to the contrary “a slap in the face”. — AFP
