The Stringer: A True Photographic “Whodunnit”

Cover art for The Stringer, a new documentary streaming now on Netflix.

Napalm Girl.

You’ve seen the photo. You know exactly which one.

It was made over 50 years ago and has become a part of history, pop culture, anti-war movements, and more.

(Possible spoilers ahead)

And for most of those 50 years it was an undeniable fact that photojournalist Nick Ut of the AP made that image of nine-year-old Kim Phuc shortly after her town had been hit with napalm, her clothes burning to her skin, she stripped and ran with her family to escape.

The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, a new documentary on Netflix, challenges almost everything we know about that photograph, most importantly, who pressed the shutter that day.

I’ll say that though the documentary presents strong arguments including forensic digital recreations of the area the image was made, interviews with the ‘the stringer,’ a photojournalist not attached to any one news agency who has claimed for five decades he made the photograph, and expert analysis of the negative to determine what 35mm film camera made the image.

As a photographer I’ve had my images stolen online, presented on other people’s photo sharing sites such as Flickr, with someone else’s name attributed to them. I did not win a Pulitzer for those images or receive 50 years of notoriety from them as Nick Ut has. For me, it was simply an annoyance.

It is difficult to think how Ut feels about this. He did not sit for an interview for the documentary, though the filmmaker makes an ongoing point of attempting to contact Ut to speak on camera, with Ut never responding. Was that just for show to assist with their argument that Ut did not make the photograph?

Nick Ut has not given a direct interview on the controversy. A statement from his attorney disputed the documentary’s assertions.

The documentary is well made, but you never get over the sense that it was made a few years too late. Several of the key players in Vietnam when the image was made and published are now dead and unable to give their sides of the story, though the film attempts at times to make you think they know what happened.

In the end, it is worth the watch as a photographer, or for anyone who creates work that it is important to have their name associated with. As artists that is sometimes all we get from our creations.