24 7 March 2020 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
NICK UT
Given the tragic loss of his
elder brother, Ut admits it was
very hard at first, but fortunately for
the history of documentary
photography, the AP bureau in
Saigon recognised his talent
(originally, top AP photographer
and editor Horst Faas refused to
take him on, not wanting the blood
of two brothers on his hands). ‘It
was something I had to do,’ he
explains. ‘I very much wanted to be
like my brother. I wanted to
continue his relentless work
showing the atrocities of war.’
Goya-esque horror
Eventually, Ut worked his way from
the darkroom to battlefield,
surviving several injuries until that
fateful day in the town of Trang
Bang in 1972, just off Highway 1.
The area was full of insurgent Viet
Cong guerrillas and North
Vietnamese regulars, so the US-
backed South Vietnamese forces
dropped napalm on what they’d
identified as groups of communist
fighters. Just another day in the
Vietnam war, then, but tragically
the spotters failed to realise that
there were a number of refugees
taking shelter in a nearby temple.
When the napalm hit, a group of
local children were also caught up
the strike. Amidst the chaos and
horror of this Goya-esque scene, Ut
had the presence of mind to get the
shot of a lifetime, but then, in an act
of utter heroism, put his camera
aside to help a nine-year-old girl,
Kim Phuc, whose clothes had
been burned off.
‘If I had not helped her, I believe
she would died,’ Ut recounts in a
matter-of-fact way. ‘Kim Phuc’s
We mentioned AP’s Horst Faas,
and this great champion of conflict
photography became instrumental
in getting Ut’s image published
across the world. ‘As soon as I
clicked the shutter, I knew I had
something special. It took Horstinjuries were very severe, so I
had to act quickly and decisively.
I immediately took her to a hospital
in nearby Cu Chi where they first
refused to help her, but once I
showed my press pass, they took care
of her. We’ve been friends ever since.’Above: Youthful
civil defence
militiamen looking
for ammunition
caches, South
Vietnam, 1969