Photographer Nick Út Donates "Napalm Girl" Photo and Camera to the Vietnamese Women's Museum

  Nick Út is a well-known photographer who retired in March 2017 after 51 years working for the Associated Press in the USA. On Saturday 6 May 2017, he donated to the Vietnamese Women's Museum, an ASEMUS member, his famous photo of the "Napalm Girl" (real name Phan Thị Kim Phúc), who was burnt by an America napalm bomb in Trang Bang District, Tay Ninh province, Viet Nam. This year commemorates 45 years since the photo was taken. The Vietnamese-American photographer also donated the Nikkomat he used during his time in the Vietnam War, and four other photographs related to the story of Phan Thị Kim Phúc. One of the photographs was taken by a colleague and captures Nick Út himself, as he waits with the child before medical assistance arrives. “I am no longer young. I got injured three times in the war and there is a bullet fragment still left in my body. No one knows how life will go and I would like to donate these objects in this place so the history of the country can be preserved for the future and for the younger generation. Photographs capture a woman, stories about her, and there is nowhere better than the Vietnamese Women’s Museum.” This sincere statement from the photographer Huỳnh Công Út (Nick Út) gives his reasons for donating the photographs representing ‘Napalm Girl” to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum during his visit to Viet Nam in May 2017. The “Napalm Girl” photograph features Phan Thị Kim Phúc running on a road after being burnt on 8 June 1972. Over time, this photograph has had a strong global impact. Only 4 hours after it was released in Saigon, the photograph was seen in Tokyo and New York. It rallied the anti-war movement in the USA and Europe. It also brought the Pulitzer Prize for Nick Út in 1973. The photograph also changed the destiny of the main character – the girl Kim Phúc. From being a war victim, Kim Phúc became a Peace Ambassador of the United Nations. She has traveled around the world, talking about war, peace and healed wounds. Kim Phúc and Nick Út have kept a strong connection. She calls him ‘Uncle’ like a family member. Nick Út is a well known name in the international press, but is proud of his Vietnamese name and heritage. This is the first time Nick Út has donated these photographs and the Vietnamese Women’s Museum is honored to receive them and to create a synergy with contemporary life and the message of peace. The Vietnamese Women’s Museum will be displaying the photographs at their Great Hall until 18 May 2017 to celebrate International Museum Day 2017 under the theme “Museum and History: Sharing untold stories in the museum”. For additional information about the Vietnamese Women's Museum and its activities, please visit http://www.womenmuseum.org.vn/  

Pictured above: The Director of the Vietnamese Women's Museum, Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Bích Vân, receives photo from photographer Nick Út; and Nick Út talks to the press at the Vietnamese Women's Museum, Hanoi.