Was the iconic Vietnam War photo of 'napalm girl' wrongly attributed?
The World Press Photo informed the suspension of the authorship attribution for the photograph titled 'The Terror of War' taken during the Vietnam War, in 1972.
The much-acclaimed photograph, shot 50 years ago, also known as the 'Napalm Girl' shows terrified children fleeing a napalm attack on their village with the armed Vietnamese forces in the background.
The image was attributed to Huỳnh Công “Nick” Út, a young Vietnamese photographer for the Associated Press (AP). However, following the release of The Stringer, a documentary by The VII Foundation that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, an investigation was conducted to ascertain the authorship of the photograph.
The documentary, supported by visual analysis by Paris-based research group INDEX, raised doubts about the attribution of authorship to Nick Út and provided evidence to suggest that the photo may instead have been taken by Nguyễn Thành Nghệ, a Vietnamese stringer for AP.
"At World Press Photo, however, we took a different path," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director. "Guided by our judging procedures we conclude that the level of doubt is too significant to maintain the existing attribution. At the same time, lacking conclusive evidence pointing definitively to another photographer, we cannot reassign authorship either."
Following an investigation, World Press Photo decided to suspend the authorship attribution and decided to update the text.
“Due to this current doubt, World Press Photo has suspended the attribution to Nick Út. The available visual evidence and the likely camera used on that day indicate that photographers Nguyễn Thành Nghệ or Huỳnh Công Phúc may have been better positioned to take the photograph. Importantly, the photograph itself remains undisputed, and the award for the photograph stands. Only the authorship is under review. This remains contested history, and it is possible that the author of the photograph will never be fully confirmed. The suspension of the authorship attribution stands unless it is proved otherwise," reads the revised note.
However, AP maintained that since there is no definitive proof that Nick Út did not take the photo, the attribution of authorship to him should stand.
World