Nick Ut Breaks His Silence on Accusation He Didn’t Take ‘Napalm Girl’ Photo

The Terror of War. | Associated Press

Nick Ut, the subject of a new documentary that claims he didn’t take the iconic “Napalm Girl” photo which is arguably the most famous image of the Vietnam war and for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, has broken his silence on the controversy.

The documentary titled “The Stringer,” which debuted at Sundance Film Festival this year, asserts that it was not Ut that took the photo but a Vietnamese stringer named Thanh Nghe. The documentary is supposedly based heavily on the input of Associated Press photo editor Carl Robinson who was working at the Saigon bureau the day when the photograph was taken. While the executive producer of the documentary says that the movie doesn’t hinge on Robinson’s input, he is supposedly a major factor.

A still from ‘The Stringer’ allegedly showing Thanh Nghe at the scene of the Napalm Girl photograph in 1972. | VII Foundation

Ut retained legal representation around the time the documentary debuted and plans a defamation lawsuit against the makers of the film. A GoFundMe has been set up to help him pay for legal fees.

Ut took to Facebook to express his sadness at Robinon’s words and actions and says that he did take the photo, regardless of what the documentary says.

“More than 50 years later, I cannot understand why Mr. Carl Robinson, a fellow employee of the AP in Saigon at the time, would make up a story and claim I did not take that iconic photo, The Terror or War aka Napalm Girl,” he writes.

“Why would Mr. Robinson not come forward in the many years before this? Mr. Robinson stood next to me and celebrated the Pulitzer Prize I won on the day it was announced. Mr. Robinson has had ample time to come forward before the key witnesses and those he is accusing of lying passes away. I am extremely sad for the bureau chief and boss Horst Faas, rest in peace, and all of the AP staff in Saigon. This accusation by Mr. Robinson in my opinion is a slap in the face of everyone who dedicated their entire lives, careers to creating authentic, real and true images in very difficult situations like the Vietnam War.”

In a lengthy Substack article, Robinson asserts that his boss Horst Faas “leaned into my right ear and ordered in his harsh German accent, ‘Nick Ut. Make it Nick Ut’.” He does not elaborate on why the widely-respected Faas would ask him to swap credits, although it has been argued that it is because Faas wanted the photo to be credited to an AP staffer rather than a stringer.

Horst Faas passed away on January 31, 2024.

The established story indicates that Robinson believed the full-frontal nudity in the image rendered it unusable, but he was overruled, first by Faas and then by AP’s photo chief Hal Buell in New York City. Despite the overwhelming power of this image, Robinson still maintains that it should never have been published.

Given the circumstances and timing, Ut appears exasperated at the documentary’s release.

“No one else ever came forward claiming that my image was not mine, no one ever confronted me about my photo and this is also the first time I heard the story that it was a stringer’s film. All film was labeled and marked with each person’s name at the office before developing and matched by the label to the envelopes with the photographer’s names. Our system at the AP Saigon was fail-proof when it came to which negatives belonged to who,” Ut writes.

“I took the photo of Kim Phuc, I took the other photos from that day that show her family and the devastation the war caused. No one else has the right to claim that I did not take that specific or any other photo attributed to me because I am the creator of all the work I’ve done since day one. My career spans more than 50 years and, although I am now retired from the AP, I continue to create impacting images for the world to see.”

PetaPixel has repeatedly asked the VII Foundation, the production company, for a screener of The Stringer but has thus far been denied, as the production company claims no digital screenings are available.