Pulitzer winning photographer Nick Ut is seen while talking with media at the place he took his iconic ‘Napalm girl’ photo 43 years ago on 8th June 1972 showing a naked Vietnamese girl screaming and running after a napalm attack near Trang Bang town, Tay Ninh province, Viet Nam. On Monday, 8th June 2015, Nick Ut returns to the same place to capture his memories. (AP Photo/Na Son Nguyen).
Nick Ut’s Instagram from Vietnam began with this: “Hi, it’s Nick Ut. Near Trang Bang on highway one Vietnam.” On Monday, 43 years after shooting the now-iconic image of a little girl hit by napalm in Vietnam, Ut returned to the country to shoot more images — this time on an iPhone. Ted Anthony reported on the Pulitzer winner’s journey for The Associated Press.
Huynh Cong “Nick” Ut was 21 on that day more than half a lifetime ago when he stood on the same road, pointed his camera northeast and captured one of history’s most famous images — a naked Vietnamese girl screaming and fleeing after South Vietnamese planes looking for Viet Cong insurgents attacked with napalm from the air.
On Monday, 43 years later to the day, Ut went back to document some of his Vietnam War memories with a tool from an entirely different era — a 4-ounce iPhone 5 equipped with the ability to send photos to the world in the blink of a digital eye.
For the 43rd anniversary of the photo, Ut took over the AP’s Instagram account for the day.
He comes back nearly every year, Anthony reported. And on Monday, Ut was as much the subject of images as the one taking them.
Ut ended up posting six images of Trang Bang on Instagram, including one of Ho Van Bon, 54, Kim Phuc’s cousin and the boy to her left in the 1972 photo. Today, sitting at the roadside stall, he says instantaneous photo sharing can be a potent force when bad things happen.
“If this were to happen right now . it’s much better for the world now for these social networks to have instant attention for something,” he said through a translator. “It makes the world a better place.”
It wouldn’t just be Ut uploading, though. His photo, as powerful as it is, would have had competition for the eyeballs of the world.
