Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer On Display

April 19, 2008

One photograph changed the mood of an entire country. The powerful image of 9-year-old Kim Phuc running from her village, crying and naked with her arms flailing, helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War.

Taken in 1972, the photo won Vietnamese-born Nick Ut the coveted Pulitzer Prize at the young age of 22. Now 57, Mr. Ut recently spoke about that day before a crowd at the University of La Verne where a collection of his best photographs are on display.

It was morning when a napalm bomb was dropped on the village of Trang Bang. Women and children began to run down the highway leading out of the village. After photographing Ms. Phuc and her brother, Mr. Ut set his camera down, poured water on her body and covered her in a raincoat.

“I took her and some other children straight to the hospital,” Mr. Ut said. “I knew if I didn’t, she would die right away. She had burns on over 80 percent of her body."

She survived but has permanent skin damage from the napalm. Through the years, Mr. Ut and Ms. Phuc have built a lasting relationship. Fifteen years after their initial encounter, the two reunited for the first time in Havana, Cuba in 1989.
“She kept reaching over and hugging him,” said Jim Caccavo, a friend and fellow photographer who joined in at the reunion. “You could tell the affection was very real.”

Since then, the 2 have met on several occasions and have attended speaking engagements together. A mother of 2, Ms. Phuc today lives with her family in Canada, where she received political asylum.

Mr. Ut became an American citizen and works in Los Angeles for the Associated Press. Far from the jungles of Vietnam where he began his journey, his subjects now include O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton.

Last year, Mr. Ut snapped another well-known photo of a distraught Paris Hilton crying in the back of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s cruiser. The Hilton photo was taken exactly 35 years to the day after his renowned photo of Kim Phuc, drawing criticism to the current state of the news media.

“What has our society come to, many wondered upon seeing the date and the by-line, when our Pulitzer Prize-winning photographers are today chasing after celebrities in order to feed our need for gossip and glitz?” asked gallery curator Randy Miller, a University of La Verne Journalism Professor.

Despite being seriously injured 3 times during the Vietnam War, Mr. Ut said he would rather be covering a war than gossipy stories in Los Angeles. He and many others feel that his skills are being underutilized as a celebrity news photographer.

“People tell me, ‘Hey Nick, you already took one picture that ended a war, you should go to Iraq and do that again’,” Mr. Ut said with a laugh. “I am ready to go. Just call me.”

Mr. Ut’s exhibition will be on display at the Irene Carlson Gallery at the University of La Verne until May 10, 2008. He also has a DVD up for sale, entitled From Hell to Hollywood, featuring work spanning his 40-year career as a photographer for the Associated Press.