Via The Leica Camera Blog
Barely out if his teens, Nick Ut was thrust into the role of combat
photographer after the untimely death of his talented brother, a noted actor and
AP photojournalist. Here in his own unadorned and eloquent prose is the truly
incredible story of how this young Vietnamese photojournalist fortuitously
missed getting shot down in a helicopter and went on to use his beloved Leica to
capture “Napalm Girl,” the most searing and influential picture of the Vietnam
War, and become the youngest person ever to win the Pulitzer Prize. Nick Ut was
honored with the Leica Hall of Fame Award on September 17 at “LEICA – DAS
WESENTLICHE”.
Q: Can you tell us about the photo of your brother and the influence he had
on you?
A: My brother was named Huynh Thanh My. He worked as an AP photographer in
the Mekong Delta in 1965. He is number 7 in the family and after he died I
subsequently joined the AP after the New Year in 1966.
Q: Did you want to become a photographer because of your brother?
A: Really I wanted to be a photographer very much. I learned a lot from him.
Before my brother died he showed me all his Leica cameras. He used them
practically every day to cover the war. This is a picture of him taken 40 years
ago. It’s been many years since I’ve seen that image and this was really the
first time I’ve also seen the negative.
Q: So when your brother died, a year later you joined the AP. How old were
you when you joined?
A: When my brother died in 1965 in Vietnam they held a funeral and my entire
family attended. They all looked at me and said, “That young boy might be a
photographer.” They looked at me as I held a picture of my brother. I wasn’t
sure about becoming a photographer at that point, yet my family clearly wished I
would become one—even my sister in law. They said, “Nick, don’t you want to
become a photographer?” And I said yes. So they said, “Maybe we should go to AP
office in Saigon and see Horst and see
if maybe you can get the
job.” And I told my sister, “I’m not a photographer yet—I need to learn
something to be in the AP. Hopefully they’ll give me a job as a photographer
when I show them I’ve learned something about the AP darkroom.” Well I learned a
lot about the darkroom and I also took pictures every day in Saigon with my
Leica and every other camera in the AP office. I showed them my pictures and
they said I was a good photographer. I told them I didn’t believe that. Then one
day I showed them a picture of the destroyed abbey in Vietnam and that marks the
turning point. From then on I really wanted to be photographer, and 3 or 4
months later I was an official combat photographer and I went everywhere. I was
the youngest combat photographer. I never saw anyone as young as I was in that
role.
Q: Not every young photographer gets to start out with a Leica either.
A: Yeah I first held a Leica when I was fifteen. My brother had a Leica and
he would show it to me. I would hold the camera and want to take pictures with
it. And my brother knew I really loved the Leica so when he came home we would
take the camera everywhere. I wanted to learn. I wanted to shoot pictures all
over my neighborhood. I would show my family the pictures. And then when I
joined AP they had a camera. They told me I could pick which one I wanted and I
told them I’d love to have two Leicas. Then they give me the Leica M3 and the
Leica M2 and I carried them every day, everywhere. I would hide undercover till
I saw something and then I would take a picture. Sometimes I would see the bombs
in Saigon and I would take a picture of a lot of dead bodies and then take them
back and show the AP.
Q: One thing I didn’t know was that your brother was an actor before he
died.
A: Yes. My brother was very handsome. He was a Vietnamese movie star. He was
very tall. All the women loved him. He became the CBS cameraman and he joined
the AP in ’65.
Q: Now when you were shooting during the Vietnam War, you also got injured
correct?
A: Yes, I was injured in the thigh and I was very lucky just it was only
shrapnel in my leg. In the winter it hurts. But many other photographers were
injured far more severely or even killed.
Q: And you had said someone saved your life while you were shooting pictures
too?
A: Yes, my friend Henry, the best AP photographer in Saigon. In 1970 there
was a heavy shelling in Laos, and Henry told me he wanted to take a vacation in
Hong Kong. He asked if he could take the first helicopter out of Laos. Since he
was a really good friend I let him take my seat, and I took another flight from
Laos to Saigon. The first thing I did when I got in the office was to check on
any more assignments and to see my boss Horst. He asked if I had seen Henry and
I told him he had taken my seat. He told me gravely that that helicopter was
shot and that everyone on it had died. And I told him that it was supposed to me
that had died. Henry took my seat and got killed for me.
Q: So we’re going to talk a little bit about the big famous photo. What did
you expect in Trang Bang the day that you went?
A: In year 7 of the war, I heard the story about heavy fighting in Trang
Bang. Lots of people were fighting on highway one and they had locked down the
highway. They were fighting like they were on the first day. So I told a friend
of mine that I wanted to go there the next day in the early morning. At 7:30 the
following morning I saw 1,000 victim refugees on the highway, many of them
running. I took a lot of pictures of refugees running, and you could see the
black smoke from the bombs all morning. I followed the 25
th division
away from the highway 2 miles away. When I went back to the highway I saw dead
bodies everywhere. So I wanted to head back to AP Saigon because I had many
pictures ready. That was when I noticed one Vietnamese soldier. He had thrown a
smoke grenade, which erupted in yellow smoke. Then you could hear a jet come in
and dive down and drop two bombs. Immediately there were two explosions. It was
very noisy. And then a sky-rider dove and dropped napalm. And I shot the picture
and it looked really good because I shot in black and white, not color. I took
the picture and then everyone was running furiously; I had taken the picture
before anyone had realized what happened. Then a woman carrying a baby came
running. She is asking for help. Her grandson was dying and he was only a year
old. I used my Leica to take a picture and the boy died right in front of my
camera. Then I saw the naked girl, Kim, running and I ran inside right away. I
took a lot of pictures. And when she passed me I saw a lot of her skin coming
off. I knew she was going to die. I put my camera down on the highway and put
water on her body right away. She told me no more water. I told her it was just
drinking water. But she said in Vietnamese, “Too hot! Too hot! I think I’m
dying”
She told her brother she thought she was dying also. But they kept running
for another ten minutes and then I told her I wanted to help her. My friend from
the BBC assisted with the water bottle. Then I borrowed a raincoat for her body
since she was naked. I picked her up and put her in my car with all the children
already inside the car. She kept telling me she was dying. I knew she was dying,
but I wanted to take her to a good hospital. And the people at the hospital
wanted to help her too. But the local hospital was too small. When I got there I
showed them my media pass and said if these children die your picture will be on
the front page
tomorrow and you might be out of a job, and they
were worried. Well, we got all the children into the hospital, but then I
started worrying about my pictures. I held my camera and looked at it to see how
many frames I had taken. I knew that number 7 would be a good shot. When I got
to the AP office I told them I had a very important roll of film. I asked them
to please help me develop it, so we went into the darkroom immediately. We
developed all my pictures and after looking at the first photo they asked me why
I shot a picture of a naked girl. I said no, it was the result of a napalm bomb.
You can see it exploding. We made one 5 x7 print of it and waited for
Horst
to come back so we could show him the picture. I wound up
talking all week about that picture. New York and Vietnam said good job. And
that morning Horst
and I went back to do a story about what had
happened with the napalm. Later we saw Kim’s father running around looking for
her. I told him she might be dying in a hospital. He screamed and then he took a
small car to the hospital right away. I went back to the hospital and I saw her
parents. Her father thanked me and said I saved his daughter’s life.
Q: You developed the film yourself. When did you know it was a special
photo?
A: What happens when you shoot a picture on film is that you don’t see it
until it’s developed and printed. Today with digital you can see the image right
away. And I remember 40 years ago everyone worried about his pictures. So when I
developed the picture and saw it I thought “Oh my God. I have a picture” and
thought of my brother number 7. For many years he said he hated war. He told me
hoped one day I would have a picture that would stop the war. And that picture
of Kim running did stop the war. Everybody was so happy.
Q: How does it feel to have taken a photo that had so much influence?
A: I think I was mostly lucky. I was so happy I had taken that picture. Even
now, almost 40 years later people are still talking about that picture.
Q: You mention the number 7 coming up a lot. Can you share the significance
of that number?
A: My parents had 11 children. My brother was number 7. He was a wonderful
photographer for AP in Saigon. And he always told us stories about his pictures.
Every time he came home he would show the pictures to his wife and me. He showed
me pictures of dead bodies of Vietnamese and American soldiers. He would say he
didn’t want the war to go on. He wanted to see have pictures published on a
front page somewhere to help stop the war in Vietnam. But he died in 1965 and he
was only 27. He never continued with his pictures. Then when I got my job I
overhear my boss say that he hoped I could take a picture that would stop the
war. I did with the napalm girl. So I said yeah brother, I have a picture that
will stop the war. And it was number 7 on the negatives too. That was from my
brother I am sure.
Q: What film and camera did you use?
A: I shot it with a Leica M2 on 35mm color film.
Q: So what did your boss Horst say when he first saw the photo of Kim?
A: When he first saw the picture he had just come back from London. He asked
who took the picture. They said it was mine. He asked me what happened in that
picture. I told him napalm dropped. He went and sat at the light table by
himself to look at my negative. He went to the darkroom and made 12 more prints
to send to New York. He said that picture would cause trouble, and that he’d
never seen a picture like this taken in Vietnam. But when he sent the picture to
New York they didn’t want to use it because it was too naked. He said no I want
that picture sent right away. He was yelling.
Q: So who was responsible for actually getting the photograph published?
A: Horst. He sent it to the director in NY and they made sure the picture got
sent out.
Q: You broke a lot of records that day as far as being the youngest Pulitzer
Prize winner and also getting a photo of a naked girl widely published. Can you
tell us about these records that you broke?
A: I remember being interviewed. They asked how I felt about winning the
Pulitzer Prize and I said, “I’m too young! I don’t know anything about a perfect
photo.” They said I won something. They came to the office and opened champagne
and said I had won the Pulitzer Prize! I said “Oh my God!” They told me I was
too young to win the Pulitzer Prize. It was so exciting. The AP called me and
said I was the best. Yes, I am still the youngest ever to this day.
Q: It’s been 40 years since you took that iconic picture. Can you say how
much that one photo has impacted your life as a photographer?
A: At the time of the picture’s 35-year anniversary I took a picture of Paris
Hilton going to jail. It was shot on the same I day I took the picture of the
napalm girl. Nowadays they call me Hollywood Nick, so when I went back to the AP
they told me my next assignment was to take a picture of Paris Hilton going to
jail. So I went to Hollywood and I remembered that it was the same day 35 years
ago when I shot the napalm picture. So then I took a picture of Paris Hilton.
She was with her father and she was crying. As I fired off two frames I realized
that her hair looked exactly like the girl from my photo 35 years ago. And she
was crying. And CNN ran a story about the man who took a picture of the napalm
girl and 35 years later took the picture of Paris Hilton going to jail.
Q: How does it feel to win the Leica Hall of Fame award?
A: I was very happy when I heard that Leica was giving me the Hall of Fame
award. When they told me I said yes, I want to go there and accept the
award.
Q: Is it also special for you because Horst will also be getting an award
too?
A: I really wish I could call him and say, “Daddy, you come with me and see
the Hall of Fame. I’m receiving a big award and you have to be there with me”
and he would email me back and say “Nick, my son I’ll be there with you.” But I
know I’ll never see him there because he got very ill. After he came home from
the hospital and they told me he had passed away and I cried a lot. I miss
him.
Q: You’ve had an amazing career. What advice would you give to young
photographers that want to get into photojournalism?
A:
I think young photographers today should shoot film first before getting
a digital camera. I’ve seen many high school students in America in California
that shoot film before getting into digital. And I think that’s a good thing.
Because when you start with digital you shoot too fast. With film you have to
make every picture count.
Thank you for your time, Nick!
-Leica Internet Team
Join legendary Life magazine photojournalist Bill Eppridge as he takes a look back at the politicians and campaigns he photographed in the nineteen sixties and seventies, and talks about how the issues that were happening then are still prevalent in this country today. He will also talk about advances in the camera equipment he uses, and how he transitioned from film to digital cameras beginning in 2001. This is a unique opportunity to learn about history and political coverage from someone who experienced it with insider access. 
Bill Eppridge
