The great mystery of the napalm girl photo

There is one image that has undoubtedly shaped our perception of war and, despite the passage of time, remains etched in our contemporary visual memory. It is the photograph of the little girl running naked, her skin burned by napalm, following the bombing of Trang Bang, fifty kilometers from Saigon, in June 1972. The following year, photographer Nick Ut received the Pulitzer Prize and the World Press Photo award for this iconic image. It raised awareness of the cruelty of war on the civilian population, spurred the anti-war movement, and there are recorded phone conversations of Nixon from the Oval Office expressing concern about the photo's political potential and the cost it could have on the official narrative about Vietnam. For fifty years, Nick Ut has received public recognition and has explained the details of how he captured the image and took the girl to the hospital.

But the story behind this photograph has taken an unexpected turn: it's possible that he didn't take the picture, but rather another colleague who was also on that road in Trang Bang. This is explained and demonstrated in a superb documentary available on Netflix. War photographer: the man who captured the image This is the title translated into Spanish, which is more descriptive. The original, The stringer, refers to the name given to many photographers freelance Locals who, as freelancers, contributed their work in exchange for a few dollars. The Associated Press (AP) attributed the photograph to Nick Ut because he was their staff photographer. But one of the AP photo editors who was working that day in the Saigon bureau remembers how the name of the person who actually pressed the shutter at that precise moment was erased from history. Half a century later, remorse haunts him, and he contacts photographer Gary Knight to investigate and find the true photographer. The hour-and-a-half documentary will appeal to photography enthusiasts, those interested in armed conflicts, fans of good stories, and devotees of in-depth journalistic investigations. The production also offers a unique perspective on the Vietnam War. The stringer It has everything. Even some splendid plot twists. The documentary manages the information very well, not only to captivate the viewer but also to rigorously explain every detail. The conclusions of the French forensic technicians who analyze the images with current technology are astounding. The search for the mysterious photographer is gripping, and the protagonists bravely take a stand despite the pressures and potential consequences of questioning the authorship of such a famous photo from such a prestigious agency. Don't miss it, because it's one of those documentaries that has the courage to rewrite history with a compelling, powerful, and reliable ending that ultimately has repercussions.