Content note: this story contains a graphic photograph of a child injured in a war.
Welcome to this edition of Photography Stories. Today, we look at the story behind the photograph credited to Nick Ut, made near Trảng Bàng, Vietnam, on 8 June 1972. We’d love to read your comments below.
(This is the story behind the photograph.)
On 8 June 1972, a girl ran toward the cameras.
Her name was Phan Thị Kim Phúc, and she was nine years old. A South Vietnamese plane had just dropped napalm on her village by mistake. A photograph of her running, credited to Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, soon appeared on the front pages of American newspapers. It became one of the best-known pictures of the Vietnam War.
Today, the same photograph is part of a second story.
In 2025, a documentary called The Stringer argued that another man took it. The Associated Press looked again and kept the credit with Ut. World Press Photo looked again and suspended it.
This story follows that day step by step, and then explains what each side says about who was behind the camera.
The road outside Trảng Bàng
Trảng Bàng is a village northwest of Saigon, on Highway 1. On 8 June 1972, South Vietnamese troops and local civilians were near the village. Journalists and TV crews were waiting on the road. One of them was Nick Ut, a 21-year-old photographer from AP’s Saigon bureau. A World Press Photo review of photos and film from that day later identified 16 people at the scene.
Then an A-1 Skyraider of the South Vietnamese Air Force came in low. It dropped napalm on its own troops and on civilians. The pilot had made a mistake.
People started running out along the road, toward the journalists. Among them were children. One of them was Kim Phúc. Her clothes were gone. Years later she said, “The fire burned off all my clothes.” As she ran, she screamed, “Too hot! Too hot!”
The photographers lifted their cameras. The picture credited to Ut shows her in the middle of the road, arms held out from her body. Other children run beside her. Soldiers walk behind them.
“The Terror of War”, near Trảng Bàng, Vietnam, 8 June 1972. Credited to Nick Ut, AP. World Press Photo suspended this attribution in May 2025.
After the picture
What happened next is told by the two people at the centre of the story. Ut has said he poured water on her and drove her and other children to a hospital in his car. Kim Phúc remembers passing out after she was soaked with water. She has thanked Ut for taking her to a nearby hospital. Other accounts differ on who poured the water.
Ut has said he returned to the AP bureau in Saigon with eight rolls of film. In the bureau, editors argued about one frame. It showed a naked child, and some said it could not be sent. In the end, AP sent it out.
The photo became known as “The Terror of War”. In 1973 it won the Pulitzer Prize. It also won the World Press Photo award.
Forty-four years later, the picture caused a new argument. In September 2016, Facebook removed it from a post because it showed a naked child. Espen Egil Hansen, editor-in-chief of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, criticised Mark Zuckerberg in public. Facebook soon put the photo back. The company said the value of sharing it was greater than the reason for removing it.
Who took the photo?
The Stringer, directed by Bao Nguyen, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025. Netflix released it in November 2025. According to the VII Foundation, which produced the film, the investigation took two years. The film claims that Nguyễn Thành Nghệ, a freelance “stringer”, took the photo and sold it to AP. Former AP editor Carl Robinson says he was told to credit Ut.
In May 2025, AP said it was “possible Nick Ut took the photo” and kept his credit. According to AP, no proof showed that Nghệ took it. On 16 May 2025, World Press Photo suspended the credit to Ut but did not name a new author.
Ut says he took the photo. In 2026 he sued the VII Foundation and Netflix for defamation in France. Kim Phúc supports him. As of 10 November 2026, no court has ruled. The trial is expected in early 2027.
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On 8 June 1972, a girl ran toward the cameras. Her name was Phan Thị Kim Phúc, and she was nine years old.