Goedemorgen,

Somebody wrote in a Dutch newspaper that the world famous photo 'The Terror of War' by Nick Ut is a kind of manipulation because 'the 3 soldiers on the right of the original photo are cut off'. I want to write a response on that article and for that reason I need an answer on the following quiestions:

1) Who are the 3 men on the right side of the original photo and were they soldiers or journalists? I'm very interested in the story about the man who is changing his film? Is he a journalist, who is he and for who was he working?

2) Was the photo originaly published with or without those man? If not: when was the complete photo published and by who?

3) Who was the UPI photographer that made a similar photo of Kim Phuc, about one minute later. You can find a copy of that photo at http://search.corbis.com/default.asp?s=kim+phuc&l=kim+phuc&b=3&a=3&r=1&p=1

4) Are there even more photojournalists who made a similar photo. On the photo mentioned in question 3, you can see several journalists running to Kim Phuc.

For those who think they don't know 'The Terror of War': it is the photo of the naked girl from Vietnam, burned by napalm, taken on 8 july 1972 by AP photographer Nick Ut.

Thanks in advance, Met vriendelijke groeten,

Miriam van der Have.

-- Miriam van der Have (miriam@mensdata.nl), April 12, 1999

Answers

i think i know who was changeing there film if you email me the uncropped picture i will for ward it to the photorapher and ask if he wants to be idetifyed

-- david hodgson (davidhodgson@mindspring.com), April 14, 1999.

The Corbis/UPI image was photographed by a UPI stringer photographer, only identified as DK. We do not know who that was, although I asked an old UPI employee. The photographers in the background are not indentified. I cannot say for certain which natioality they have. We do have different frames; one where the children are guided to the road, just before they start running (another explosion/more clouds billowing). The photographers are not in this frame. I have more frames under the same number, but they are in the freezer. If you are really interested, I could take them out and see if there is any more information that might be of interest to you.

Dag, Els Rijper

-- Els Rijper (elsr@corbis.com), July 12, 1999.

I don't know if this will help, but in the March '99 issue of News Photographer, NPPA's magazine, there is an article on Dinh Phuc Le who was a mopic camera man also present at the same time that Huynh Cong "Nick" Ut took his picture. The body language of one of the individuals who I assume was cut off leads me to believe he is holding a rifle; as an infantryman in Bosnia I held my weapon like that and saw others do the same. I can't speculate on the other two, the individual looking back or the guy loading his camera. Hope this helps.

-- Paul Disney (pkjdiz@hotmail.com), September 24, 1999.

good stories and answers

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0008/ng4.htm

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0008/ng2.htm

-- Ladyfoxe (ladyfoxe@excite.come), January 25, 2001.

I believe the UPI photographer was Willy Vicoy, who told me of being there and showed me a very similar picture. Willy and I worked together in the Manila bureau for several years; he was killed by an M-79 round from the New Peoples Army, which put a sliver of shrapnel in his liver in Northern Luzon, about 1980. He died in a provincial hospital where the doctors didn't see the piece inside him.

Nick Ut's image was edited by John Nance, also an old friend, but one who survives and is, as I write, back in Mindinao to visit the Tasaday tribe. He has more or less dedicated his life to covering them since 1971, but was a victim of the forces of mindless and uninformed political correctness, and has suffered mightily for his altruism. John was, in the mid '90s, thinking of writing a book on Nick and his exploits, but that fell through.

-- Joe Cantrell (agiyo@cnnw.net), April 25, 2001.