Huỳnh Công Út, known professionally as Nick Ut (born March 29, 1951), is a Vietnamese-American photographer who worked for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP) in Los Angeles. He won both the 1973

Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography The Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography is one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. From 2000 it has used the "breaking news" name but it is considered a continuation of the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photogr ...

and the 1973

World Press Photo of the Year The World Press Photo of the Year award is part of the World Press Photo Awards, organized by the Netherlands, Dutch foundation World Press Photo. Considered one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in photojournalism, The World Press Pho ...

for "The Terror of War", depicting children running away from a

napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...

bombing attack during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. His best-known photo features a naked 9-year-old girl,

Phan Thị Kim Phúc Phan Thị Kim Phúc (; born April 6, 1963), referred to informally as the girl in the picture and the Napalm girl, is a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize–winning phot ...

, running toward the camera from a South Vietnamese napalm strike that mistakenly hit Trảng Bàng village instead of nearby North Vietnamese troops. On the 40th anniversary of that

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning photo in September 2012, Ut became only the third person inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame for his contributions to photojournalism. On March 29, 2017, he retired from AP. On January 13, 2021, Ut became the first journalist to receive the

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the federal government.

Biography

Born in Long An,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

(then part of the

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

), Ut began to take photographs for the Associated Press when he was 16, just after his older brother

Huynh Thanh My Huỳnh Thanh Mỹ (March 29, 1938 – October 10, 1965) was a Vietnamese photographer working for the Associated Press. While covering a fight between the Viet Cong and SVN Rangers in the Mekong Delta, Huynh Thanh My was wounded in the chest and ...

, another AP photographer, was killed in Vietnam. Ut himself was wounded three different times in the war in his knee, arm, and stomach. Ut has since worked for the Associated Press in Tokyo, South Korea, and

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

and still maintains contact with

Kim Phuc Phan Thị Kim Phúc (; born April 6, 1963), referred to informally as the girl in the picture and the Napalm girl, is a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman best known as the nine-year-old child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize–winning phot ...

, who now resides in

Ajax, Ontario Ajax (; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population: 126,666) is a town in Regional Municipality of Durham, Durham Region in Southern Ontario, Canada, located in the eastern part of the Greater Toronto Area. The town is named for , a Royal Navy cruiser ...

, Canada, a suburb of

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Before delivering his film with the Kim Phúc photo, he took her to the hospital. The publication of the photo was delayed due to the AP bureau's debate about transmitting a naked girl's photo over the wire: In September 2016, a Norway newspaper published an open letter to

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...

after censorship was imposed on this photograph placed on the newspaper's Facebook page. Half of the ministers in the Norwegian government shared the famous Nick Ut photo on their Facebook pages, among them prime minister Erna Solberg from the Conservative Party (Høyre). Several of the Facebook posts including the Prime Minister's post were deleted by Facebook, but later that day Facebook decided to allow the photo.

Nixon connection

Audiotapes Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording te ...

of then-president

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

in conversation with his chief of staff,

H. R. Haldeman Harry Robbins Haldeman (October 27, 1926 – November 12, 1993) was an American political aide and businessman, best known for his service as White House Chief of Staff to President Richard Nixon and his consequent involvement in the Watergate s ...

, show that Nixon doubted the veracity of the photograph, musing whether it may have been "fixed." Following the release of this tape, Ut commented:

Family and later career

Ut is a United States citizen and is married with two children in Los Angeles. His photos of a crying

Paris Hilton Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American media personality, businesswoman, socialite, model, and entertainer. Born in New York City, and raised there and in Beverly Hills, California, she is a great-granddaughter of Conra ...

in the back seat of a

Los Angeles County Sheriff The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

's cruiser on June 8, 2007, were published worldwide; however, Ut was photographing Hilton alongside photographer

Karl Larsen Karl Larsen (born September 25, 1968) is an American photographer who is known for photographing several celebrities. His best known shot is one of Paris Hilton crying in the back of a police car after she was sentenced to serve time in jail for ...

. Two photographs emerged; the more famous photo of Hilton was credited to Ut despite being Larsen's photo.

Awards

* 1972: The George Polk Awards for News Photography: Huynh Cong Ut, Associated Press, for depicting a girl who had torn off her burned clothing and fleeing a Vietnam napalm strike. * 1972:

Overseas Press Club of America The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain a ...

Best Photographs, Daily Newspaper or Wire Service 1972, Huynh Cong Ut, The

*1973:

Winner in Spot News Photography, Huynh Cong Ut, of

, For his photograph, "The Terror of War," depicting children in flight from a napalm bombing *2014 The Lucie Awards: 2014 Honoree: Achievement in Photojournalism, Nick Ut * 2019: World Press Photographer Prize, IPPFK,

Kerala Media Academy Kerala Media Academy (formerly Kerala Press Academy), is an academy of journalists in Kerala. The academy was established on 19 March 1979. It is a joint venture of the Government of Kerala, Kerala Union of Working Journalists and Indian Newspap ...

, India. The award consists of a citation and a purse of Rs. 1 lakh. * 2021, the

, the highest United States award to artists and arts patrons.

References

External links

*
Nick Ut, Exactly 35 Years Later

Horst Faas and Marianne Fulton

Hall of Fame Award Winners
Leica Awards // World of Leica – Leica Camera A
archive
* https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pulitzer-award-winning-photographer-nick-ut-retires_b_58e7ff92e4b0acd784ca5826 * https://www.newsweek.com/nick-ut-why-i-accepted-trumps-medal-freedom-1561181 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ut, Huynh Cong 1951 births Living people 20th-century American photographers 20th-century Vietnamese people 21st-century American photographers Associated Press photographers People from Long An Province Pulitzer Prize for Photography winners Vietnamese emigrants to the United States Vietnamese photographers Vietnam War photographers United States National Medal of Arts recipients