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Nevilledog

(50,659 posts)
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 01:03 PM Jun 2022

"A single photo can change the world. I know, because I took one that did."



Tweet text:

Alyssa Rosenberg
@AlyssaRosenberg
You've almost certainly seen the photo of Kim Phuc running down the road, naked and burned, after a napalm strike in Vietnam. But you may not know what happened after, or about the lifelong friendship between Kim and Nick Ut, who took that picture.

washingtonpost.com
Opinion | A single photo can change the world. I know, because I took one that did.
Fifty years ago, I took a photo of Kim Phuc after she'd been burned. Then I took her to the hospital. Today, we are still friends.
6:42 AM · Jun 2, 2022




https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/nick-ut-vietnam-war-photo-kim-phuc/

No paywall
https://archive.ph/UI7Ja


Can a photograph help end a war?

Pictures from Ukraine by combat photographers, including contract photographer James Nachtwey and Associated Press photojournalists Felipe Dana, Mstyslav Chernov and Evgeniy Maloletka, have brought to light the horrific consequences of Russia’s invasion and the unconscionable treatment of innocent civilians.

Fifty years ago, I was in the same position as those photographers, working for the Associated Press in Vietnam.

I was inspired to become a photojournalist by my brother, who worked at the AP before I did, and whose mentor was the great Horst Faas. My brother taught me how to use cameras. Before he died covering a battle, he told me: “I hope one day you have a picture that stops the war.”

Horst strongly objected when I decided to follow in my brother’s footsteps. He said he did not want to have to call my mother to say that a second son had died. I told him that I understood the risk and that it was my choice.

I was inspired by my brother’s belief that photography can serve the cause of social justice, but I didn’t know if one photo could have the power he suggested. Today, many credit my photo “Napalm Girl” for hastening an end to the Vietnam War. What I know for sure is that it depicts the absolute horrors of war — defined by a young girl running naked amid destruction and death.

*snip*
24 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"A single photo can change the world. I know, because I took one that did." (Original Post) Nevilledog Jun 2022 OP
So glad he also helped her. I often wonder if such photographers put aside their journalist role Karadeniz Jun 2022 #1
I remember reading an article about that "little girl" BumRushDaShow Jun 2022 #2
Photos like that are hard to look at. But they do let you see things you might not want to. captain queeg Jun 2022 #3
I used to work with Nick Ut while at the AP. calimary Jun 2022 #4
im conflicted Mosby Jun 2022 #5
She lived, thrived, and forgave utopian Jun 2022 #7
She and Nick Ut are both still alive Another Jackalope Jun 2022 #13
I'm talking about the photo in my post. Mosby Jun 2022 #14
The boy in the photo made it to the feeding station Another Jackalope Jun 2022 #16
... Skittles Jun 2022 #20
Is this about guns ? Becsuse the ones that oppose gun control JI7 Jun 2022 #6
I remember her so well -- and the boy beside her, his face a rictus of utter terror... Hekate Jun 2022 #8
If not photos, Drs telling us over and over again the damage these guns cause to the body. Nevilledog Jun 2022 #11
A thousand doctors yakking would not, and would never, have the impact of one photograph. Nay Jun 2022 #24
It is passed time dai13sy Jun 2022 #21
I was thinking about this photo just a day or two ago. llmart Jun 2022 #22
Hard as they may be to look at, the public needs to see photos of the destruction wrought by guns. Lonestarblue Jun 2022 #9
My memories of this picture are still vivid as is that whole war. Paper Roses Jun 2022 #10
Many, if not most people under 30 were already against that war Warpy Jun 2022 #12
I was 16. The Jungle 1 Jun 2022 #15
Fifty years ago I hoped the picture of Earth from space would change the world. spike jones Jun 2022 #17
That one and Eddie Adams' "Saigon Execution" Another Jackalope Jun 2022 #18
I will NEVER forget sitting in a doctor's office looking at TIME Magazine's My Lai coverage. TygrBright Jun 2022 #19
K&R Blue Owl Jun 2022 #23

Karadeniz

(22,267 posts)
1. So glad he also helped her. I often wonder if such photographers put aside their journalist role
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 01:14 PM
Jun 2022

to fulfill a humanitarian role.

BumRushDaShow

(127,270 posts)
2. I remember reading an article about that "little girl"
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 01:15 PM
Jun 2022

and what she was doing now. Also there was this PBS interview that was probably posted on DU too -

captain queeg

(10,035 posts)
3. Photos like that are hard to look at. But they do let you see things you might not want to.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 01:19 PM
Jun 2022

I adopted a son from Vietnam. Surprisingly I didn’t feel much resentment when I was there towards Americans. I think a lot of guys who served over there have regrets. I used to take my son with me to meetings, he was always in motion climbing up on me and anything else around. There was a guy there who’d been with the marines early during the war. He always seemed to look fondly at my son. I think he felt like at least some good had come from the war. Certainly the bad outweighed the good. The warmongers never think of how the civilian population suffers.

calimary

(80,693 posts)
4. I used to work with Nick Ut while at the AP.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 01:59 PM
Jun 2022

He’s the nicest guy! So unassuming. Got along with everybody.

I remember covering Cybill Shepherd getting her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I covered entertainment so there I was. And there was a moment when I glanced down and noticed Nick Ut, crouched down on the pavement, shooting photos of the event, right in front of me, literally under the red velvet rope line. And I was blown away by the very idea. Here’s THE guy. THAT guy. THAT guy who shot THAT photo. He won a Pulitzer Prize for it.

And yet, there he was, crouched down under the red rope, getting the shots, like he had done over his long of Cybill Shepherd getting her star on the Walk of Fame. Blew my mind.

Another Jackalope

(112 posts)
13. She and Nick Ut are both still alive
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:07 PM
Jun 2022

Nick retired from AP in 2017. He did not kill himself.

Kim Phuc became a Canadian citizen in 1997, and now lives near Toronto.

Mosby

(16,158 posts)
14. I'm talking about the photo in my post.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:12 PM
Jun 2022
The vulture is waiting for the girl to die and to eat her. The photograph was taken by South African photojournalist, Kevin Carter, while on assignment to Sudan. He took his own life a couple of months later due to depression.


He could have helped her, but instead he took an award winning pic.

Another Jackalope

(112 posts)
16. The boy in the photo made it to the feeding station
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:39 PM
Jun 2022

and survived for another 14 years.

Kevin Carter, the photographer, left the following as portions of his suicide note:

I'm really, really sorry. The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist. …depressed … without phone … money for rent … money for child support … money for debts … money!!! … I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain … of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners … I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky.

There is a lot of unsupportable pain in being a PJ in war-torn regions, with the constant, nagging dilemma of when to shoot and when to help.

JI7

(89,172 posts)
6. Is this about guns ? Becsuse the ones that oppose gun control
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 02:16 PM
Jun 2022

are also the ones that think we could have won that war if not for the liberals. And hate the protestors .

Hekate

(90,189 posts)
8. I remember her so well -- and the boy beside her, his face a rictus of utter terror...
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 02:19 PM
Jun 2022

That photo changed us.

As I began to read your post, those memories ran in parallel with the events of today. Not in Ukraine, but in the US. At DU we’ve been wrestling with the question: is it time for Americans to be shown the photos of our own dead and maimed children?

I think it may be time.

Nevilledog

(50,659 posts)
11. If not photos, Drs telling us over and over again the damage these guns cause to the body.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 02:23 PM
Jun 2022

Animations of kids getting shot with these weapons of war.

dai13sy

(298 posts)
21. It is passed time
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 04:13 PM
Jun 2022

I've seen pictures of the aftermath in a city, a neighborhood. They are not pretty and people need to see them. Especially the parents of any age child need to see the horror left behind when some a--h--- with an AR-15 walks into a school and decides little kids look better dead. Wake up people!!! And I do own guns and they are registered!!

llmart

(15,499 posts)
22. I was thinking about this photo just a day or two ago.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 05:24 PM
Jun 2022

I had posted something on one of the threads about the massacre saying I thought the public should see pictures of what happens. One DU'er took me to task for it. So that night I was thinking about gory photos I had seen over my adult lifetime and then I thought about the nightly news clips of my classmates in Viet Nam blown to smithereens. Then this picture came to mind. These pictures moved us younger people to protest that war and helped to end it. My sister worked at a hospital during that war. She was with the Red Cross. I spent a week visiting her when I was 18. She mostly dealt with those that had mental problems from being there. I did spend five days with her at work and saw many young men my age missing limbs and eyes, etc. It's not something I'll ever forget. There's also the photo of the dead Kent State student and the anguish on the face of his classmate.

You can read or hear all the descriptions in the world, but actually seeing it with your own eyes sears it into your mind forever.

Lonestarblue

(9,874 posts)
9. Hard as they may be to look at, the public needs to see photos of the destruction wrought by guns.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 02:21 PM
Jun 2022

Families are dealing with grief and trauma, but I’m reminded of the bravery of Emmet Till’s mother in choosing to show the world what white supremacists had done to her fourteen year old child. By not showing the ravages of gun violence, the media has sanitized mass murder. Of course, no family should be forced to share such photos and children’s faces could be blurred, but people need to see what their support of military weapons in private hands causes.

The media seems too careful to appease Republicans these days that I doubt any of them even ask for permission to publish. The media wasn’t even allowed to be at Andrews Air base to record dead soldiers in coffins being returned to the US.n

Paper Roses

(7,468 posts)
10. My memories of this picture are still vivid as is that whole war.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 02:22 PM
Jun 2022

Family members served, one received a Silver Star. He did two tours and flew MedEvac helicopters. To this day, he has not spoken to any of the family about the horrors of Vietnam.
I am thankful all family members came home. Over 54,000 did not...there are no words.

Will the world ever learn ?

Warpy

(110,900 posts)
12. Many, if not most people under 30 were already against that war
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 02:49 PM
Jun 2022

When that picture came out, we started rubbing the noses of our parents and their friends right into it.

Slowly but surely, that war became unpopular with the people who counted, the ones who controlled most of the money.

The nightly news drumbeat of firefights and body counts hadn't done it. The picture of one burned child did.

ETA: maybe what we need today is one brave family who will show the damage a semiauto gun did to the body of their dead child.

 

The Jungle 1

(4,552 posts)
15. I was 16.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:19 PM
Jun 2022

I know I did not process the image.
My country was going to send me there. I graduated in 74. The war ended in 74.

spike jones

(1,654 posts)
17. Fifty years ago I hoped the picture of Earth from space would change the world.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:51 PM
Jun 2022

One Planet One People.
[link:|

TygrBright

(20,733 posts)
19. I will NEVER forget sitting in a doctor's office looking at TIME Magazine's My Lai coverage.
Thu Jun 2, 2022, 03:58 PM
Jun 2022

I remember my stomach rolling and thinking "I'm glad I'm in a doctor's office they will know how to help me if I vomit or faint."

I remember looking at the corpses of elders and children lying heaped on a road, the burnt-out homes, the ditches with bodies in them.

At the time, I didn't think about the decisions that TIME editor must have been faced with.

But I am glad that editor made the decisions he did.

"Every one that does evil hates the light." John 3:20

sadly,
Bright

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