World Press Photo Questions Authorship of “Napalm Girl” Image

This was the image that established photographer Huynh Cong “Nick” Út, 21 years old at the time of the photo’s capture, as an icon of photo journalism. The photo landed on the front page of the New York Times just one day after it was taken, and in 1973, the image ended up winning the Pulitzer Prize and World Press Photo of the Year. 

However, this past Friday, World Press Photo announced that they are no longer crediting Út as the photographer for The Terror of War. This change in authorship was sparked by statements made in the 2025 investigative documentary The Stringer, which was directed by Bob Nguyen and showcased at Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year. 

In the film, “visual and technical” evidence–including dispute over the exact camera used–suggests that Vietnamese freelance photographer Nguyễn Thành Nghệ may have actually taken the photo instead. Nghệ was a stringer for NBC, documented to be driving near Trảng Bàng that day. Though he was not formally staffed by AP, he frequently sold photos to them. The documentary alludes to the possibility that Nghệ sold The Terror of War, with editors soon swooping in to credit Út– AP's staff photographer in Saigon. 

AP published a 96-page investigative report on the matter at the beginning of the month, relaying information from eyewitness interviews, the examination of cameras, photo negatives, and a 3D model of the scene.

When reviewing a “geo-based timeline” crafted in a visual analysis by the Paris-based research group Index, reports show that Út would have needed to “take the photo, run 60 meters (197 feet), and return calmly, all within a brief window of time,” in order to have captured the shot.

Though compelling, AP declared that this was not “definitive evidence,” and thus, they would not be altering the image’s credit. 

World Press Photo, on the other hand, showed different concerns for the lack of hard evidence. Executive Director Joumana El Zein Khoury wrote on the World Press Photo website that the “level of doubt is too significant to maintain the existing attribution.” However, like AP, they cannot reassign credit without substantial evidence. For the time being, the authorship is simply "suspended." 

Nghệ supports the account made in The Stringer, and even attended the film’s premiere, while Út stands by his own ties to the iconic photograph.