subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 7 March 2020 25
NICK UT
Bornin Vietnamin
1951,NickUttook
upphotographyafter
hiselderbrotherwas
killedcoveringthewar.
Afterspendingtime
learningtheropesin the
darkroomof a topUS
newsagency,hebecame
a warphotographer,
takingtheiconic‘Napalm
Girl’imagein 1972.
Followingthecommunist
victoryin 1975,he
starteda newlifein
theUS.NickUttook‘NapalmGirl’onhisLeicaM2witha 35mmf/2
lens.Likemanyof hisfellowphotographersat thetime,he
hauledarounda braceof NikonandLeicacamerabodies
andprimelensestocovera range
of shootingsituations
in combatzones,
from20mmto
300mm.Inside
theLeicawas
KodakTri-Xfilm
(thecamerais now
in theNewseumin
Washington).GEAR THAT MADE HISTORY
Faas to fight for it to be published,
but fight he did... and the rest is
history.’ To recap, the first AP
picture editor who saw the
developed image rejected it, fearing
Kim Phuc’s nudity meant it could
never be used in the US.
Unbelievably, the image was almost
binned, but Faas, along with AP
correspondent Peter Arnett,
returned from lunch in the nick of
time and realised they had
something very special on their
hands. On their orders, it then went
from Saigon to Tokyo to New York
by radiophoto transmitter, and soon
was horrifying the world, much to
the discomfiture of the US military
and President Nixon’s
administration. Nixon even
considered passing the picture off as
fake news, and is heard speculating
on one of the fateful White House
tapes that the photo was ‘fixed’.Some kind of happy ending
Thankfully, the veracity of the
image was proven, and even more
thankfully, Kim Phuc survived her
life-changing injuries and went on
to be a UN Goodwill Ambassador
(her brother, the sobbing boy to the
left of the frame, also lived to tell
the tale). Ut continued covering the
war until 1975, racking up yet
another injury when he returned to
Trang Bang to follow up on the KimPhuc story. ‘I have many photos of
the war,’ he continues, with
characteristic modesty. They are all
very sad because most show how
people suffer during wars... but I’m
proud of my entire body of work.’
Following a stint in Tokyo, Ut
settled in the US where he
continued to work for the AP agency
on all manner of projects. While
some of them may have seemed a bit
anticlimactic after his adventures in
the Vietnam War, Ut is ever the
practical professional. ‘I began
doing every type of photography
that journalism encompasses.
News, sports, celebrities...
Everything was very hard work but
enjoyable.’ Ut eventually retired
from AP in 2017, after 51 years
behind the lens, but keeps up an
exhausting travel schedule as part of
his promotional work with Leica. ‘I
do get tired but I love it. It’s
something I never want to stop
doing. I enjoy sharing my work and
my experiences.’
Before our conversation ended, Ut
reveals much of the secret of his
success: hard work. While some
cynics say he was just in the ‘right’
place at the right time when it came
to ‘Napalm Girl’, this totally fails to
take into account his hard-won skill
in getting exactly the right exposure,
focusing and composition, in an
unbelievably stressful situation. And
all this without superfast AF, high
ISOs and so on. ‘It’s very difficult to
be a documentary photographer
these days because the competition
is fierce,’ he concedes. ‘But always do
your best even if it’s a small
assignment. You will stand out
when your work reflects the
intensity and hard work you put in.’
With that, Nick Ut was off. He’s
said in previous interviews how,
despite all his success, photography
still inspires him, being his ‘doctor
and his medicine’. Long may he
continue shooting.Left: The funeral
of Nick Ut’s
photographer
brother, killed in- Nick is the
young man in a
white headband,
far left
Far left: A
Cambodian soldier
on operations in
the field,
September 1970