Photo group says it has 'suspended attribution' of historic Vietnam picture because of doubts

An enactment that honored The Associated Press' Nick Ut with its “ photo of the year ” successful 1973 for a representation of a miss moving from a napalm onslaught successful the Vietnam War says it has “suspended its attribution” to Ut due to the fact that of doubts implicit who really took it.

World Press Photo's study Friday adds to the muddle implicit an contented that has divided the photographic assemblage since a movie earlier this year, “The Stringer,” questioned Ut's authorship. The photograph of a bare and terrified Kim Phuc became an iconic awesome of the war's tragedy.

After 2 investigations, The Associated Press said it recovered no definitive evidence to warrant stripping Ut's photograph credit. The AP said it was imaginable Ut took the picture, but the transition of clip made it intolerable to afloat prove, and could find nary grounds to beryllium anyone other did.

World Press Photo said its probe found that 2 different photographers — Nguyen Thanh Nghe, the antheral mentioned successful “The Stringer,” and Huynh Cong Phuc — “may person been amended positioned” to instrumentality the shot.

“We reason that the level of uncertainty is excessively important to support the existing attribution,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, enforcement manager of World Press Photo. “At the aforesaid time, lacking conclusive grounds pointing definitively to different photographer, we cannot reassign authorship, either.”

World Press Photo, an enactment whose awards are considered influential successful photography, won't effort to retrieve the currency grant fixed to Ut, a spokeswoman said.

Ut's lawyer, James Hornstein, said his lawsuit hadn't spoken to World Press Photo aft immoderate archetypal interaction earlier “The Stringer” was released. “It seems they had already made up their caput to punish Nick Ut from the start,” helium said.

Gary Knight, a shaper of “The Stringer,” is simply a four-time justice of the World Press Photo awards and a advisor to the World Press Photo Foundation.

The AP said Friday that its standards “require impervious and certainty to region a recognition and we person recovered that it is intolerable to beryllium precisely what happened that time connected the roadworthy oregon successful the (AP) bureau implicit 50 years ago.”

“We recognize World Press Photo has taken antithetic enactment based connected the aforesaid disposable information, and that is their prerogative,” the connection said. “There is nary question implicit AP's ownership of the photo.”

Meanwhile, the Pulitzer Prize that Ut won for the photograph appears safe. The Pulitzers beryllium connected quality agencies who participate the awards to find authorship, and head Marjorie Miller — a erstwhile AP elder exertion — pointed to the AP’s survey showing insufficient impervious to retreat credit. “The committee does not expect aboriginal enactment astatine this time,” she said Friday.

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David Bauder writes astir media for the AP. Follow him astatine http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social