The iconic photograph Napalm Girl, formally titled The Terror of War, for once, isn’t being attacked. Here’s why many are rightly raising doubts about its authorship. Taken in June 1972 during the Vietnam War, the photograph captures a nine-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, fleeing a napalm attack in the South Vietnamese village of Trảng Bàng. The photo went on to all entries of the 1972 World Press Photo contest and subsequently won the contest’s prestigious 1973 Photo of the Year award. But who actually shot this iconic moment?
Nick Ut, Vietnamese Photographer. He now works for the Associated Press (AP) in Saigon, and is most often credited for having shot the famous photograph. The new documentary directed by Bao Nguyen, “The Stringer,” makes a radical claim against this attribution. It argues that another photographer, Nguyen Thành Nghe, might actually be the true creator. According to the documentary, Nghe sold the image to Horst Faas, the Saigon bureau photo chief, for $20 and a print.
To do so, the AP commissioned a internal review from January to May 2025 to look into these allegations. The analysis concluded that “there is no conclusive evidence” to overturn the photo’s attribution. It confirmed that Nick Ut is the Associated Press photographer. The Associated Press (AP) responded with an exhaustive 96-page report that rebutted all of the serious accusations leveled in “The Stringer.”
Derl McCrudden, an AP representative who worked on the investigation, called their reporting research, meticulous.
“We left nothing uncovered that we’re aware of and we’ve done it with a great deal of respect to everybody involved.” – Derl McCrudden
Forensic experts from French NGO Index on Censorship carried out a forensic analysis on other images purportedly showing Ut on that day. They ultimately decided it was “highly improbable” that he was the one who took the photo at issue. This discrepancy continues to fuel debates regarding the authorship of one of the most powerful images from the Vietnam War.
“It makes no difference to us if we changed the credit, but it has to be based on facts and evidence. And there is no definitive evidence proving that Nick Ut did not take this picture.” – Joumana El Zein Khoury
The unending fighting has had a heavy impact on Ut, who recently opened up about the emotional wounds left by the constant combat.
“This has been very difficult for me and has caused great pain.” – Nick Ut
Even World Press Photo weighed in on this controversy. Fifth, they accepted that this history is a live contested question. They further argued that we could never conclusively determine the true author.
“The suspension of the authorship attribution stands unless it is proved otherwise.” – World Press Photo
The organization highlighted that while questions around authorship persist, the significance of the photograph in documenting a historical moment remains undisputed.
“It is important to state that the picture itself is undisputed and it is without question that this photograph represents a real moment in history that continues to reverberate in Vietnam, the United States, and globally.” – Joumana El Zein Khoury
The debate over this classic photograph rages on. In response, issues of photographic credit and photographers’ respect and acknowledgment in the field of journalism are becoming hot topics. The revelations from “The Stringer” have since raised questions on how history is recorded and remembered by photographers.