Nick Ut, Exactly 35 Years Later
When word broke a few minutes ago that Paris Hilton was headed back to jail, we were stunned. Not because Paris was back in custody, but because the Associated Press photo of her crying in the back of a police cruiser was taken by the one and only Nick Ut. Nick, of course, was the photographer who shot young Kim Phuc, the girl wounded during a napalm attack near the village of Trang Bang, thus creating one of the iconic images of the Vietnam War. Just to note how funny life (and careers) can be,
When word broke a few minutes ago that Paris Hilton was headed back to jail, we were stunned. Not because Paris was back in custody, but because the Associated Press photo of her crying in the back of a police cruiser was taken by the one and only Nick Ut. Nick, of course, was the photographer who shot young Kim Phuc, the girl wounded during a napalm attack near the village of Trang Bang, thus creating one of the iconic images of the Vietnam War.
Just to note how funny life (and careers) can be, get this: Nick made his famous war image on June 8, 1972. Who would have imagined that 35 years (to the day) later he’d be photographing an unhappy hotel heiress being shipped off to jail and getting front-page coverage for doing so?
—David Schoauer