Pulitzer winning photographer donates photos to Vietnam’s museum

Former Associated Press war photographer Nick Ut (real name Huynh Cong Ut) handed over his two cameras and 52 photos to the Vietnam Press Museum at a ceremony on June 1^st.

Former Associated Press war photographer Nick Ut (Left) hands over his camera to the Vietnam Press Museum. (Photo: hanoimoi.com.vn)

Some of the photos were taken during the war in Vietnam and others after 1975. Many have never been published before.

Nick Ut, who was born in 1951 in the southern province of Long An, now resides in Los Angeles. He began taking photographs for AP when he was 16. He had also covered battles in Laos and Cambodia.

After the war in Vietnam ended, he was sent to Japan to work. In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued working for AP capturing news events and the lives of Hollywood stars.

Since his retirement in 2007, Nick Ut has returned to Vietnam more often to take pictures of people and landscapes.

His photo of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a nine-year-old girl running naked along the road crying from burns inflicted by a napalm bomb dropped by the U.S. in the southern province of Tay Ninh in 1972, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

The “Napalm Girl” photo shocked the world when it was sent four hours later by the AP office in Sai Gon to AP headquarters in New York, igniting an anti-American war movement in the U.S. and Europe.

The photo won Ut a Pulitzer Prize in 1973, though he did not know what the prize meant when he received the news.

It also changed Phuc’s life. As a war victim, she has travelled around the world to talk about the American war in Vietnam as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

In May 6^th, 2017, the Pulitzer winning photographer donated a set of five historic photos, including the “Napalm Girl”, to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi. Four other photos were taken at the same place on June 8^th, 1972, including a photo taken by one of Nick Ut’s colleague, which captured Nick Ut pouring water on Phuc’ body to ease her pain while waiting for a car to take her to hospital.

Ut, who was born in 1951 in the southern province of Long An, now resides in Los Angeles.

He worked for the AP as a photo journalist since the age of 16. He had also covered battles in Laos and Cambodia.

After the war in Vietnam ended, he was sent to Japan to work. In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued working for AP capturing news events and the lives of Hollywood stars.

Since his retirement in 2007, Ut has returned to Vietnam more often to take pictures of people and landscapes./.

VNF/VNA