The Girl in the Picture - 1972
Kim Phuc Phan Thi - Vietnam War survivor ][
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The Girl in the Picture - 1972
Kim Phuc Phan Thi - Vietnam War survivor ][
Posted @withregram • @fotografie_della_storia Chi non conosce questa famosissima fotografia? Venne scattata l'8 giugno 1972 durante la guerra del Vietnam da Nick Út. Lo scatto, divenuto un simbolo del conflitto, mostra Kim Phuc all'età di nove anni mentre, completamente nuda, fugge da un villaggio correndo lungo una strada insieme ad altri bambini, dopo essere stata gravemente ustionata sulle braccia e sulla schiena da un bombardamento al napalm delle forze aeree del Vietnam del sud. Il fotografo, che scattò alcune fotografie agli abitanti del villaggio in fuga, fra cui Phuc, vinse il premio Pulitzer proprio per quella fotografia, che in seguito fu anche scelta come World Press Photo of the Year del 1972. L'immagine di Phúc che corre nuda nel caos divenne una delle immagini più celebri della guerra del Vietnam. Dopo le fotografie, Út portò Kim Phuc e gli altri bambini feriti, all'ospedale di Saigon, dove la bambina fu curata per quattordici mesi e dimessa dopo diciassette interventi. Rievocando da adulta quella vicenda, Kim Phúc ha dichiarato che in quel momento stava urlando "Brucia! Brucia!", in quanto era stata ustionata gravemente dalla bomba. Questa è la versione resa nota al pubblico, ottenuta ritagliando lo scatto originale. Nel fotogramma originale infatti si vedevano, a destra e a sinistra della scena, due fotoreporter americani intenti a sostituire i rullini alle loro macchine fotografiche. La serenità con cui effettuavano questa operazione mal si sposava con la tragedia del momento e venne ritenuto opportuno rimuoverli per evitare il messaggio dell'indifferenza americana di fronte ai massacri compiuti. #lefotografiechehannofattolastoria #accaddeoggi #kimphuc #nickut https://www.instagram.com/p/CBOWstOKSCv/?igshid=1p4hnpd0hjrfb
Yesterday I had the incredibly humbling opportunity to meet Kim Phuc, who is the girl in that iconic photo from the Vietnam War. Her story of forgiveness is raw, emotional and heartbreaking. What an inspiration. #GINasia2018 #KimPhuc #forgive (at Concordia International School Shanghai)
#KarsOfinstagram #VietnamWar #NapalmBomb #TodayHistory #VietnamOfinstagram #Bombs #30March1973 #BombsOfinstagram #NapalBombsOfinstagram “That picture changed my life, and her life, too, and changed the war,” says Nick Ut. @utnicky photographed the iconic “napalm girl” photo of a burning little girl fleeing a napalm bomb attack on her village during the Vietnam War 45 years ago. He won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for the image. Today, Ut retired after 50 years as an @ap.images photographer. @nbcasianamerica spoke with him about his journey "from hell to Hollywood" as he photographed everything from people killed in battle to celebrities getting stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Ut was 21 when he took the famous photo of #KimPhuc fleeing her burning village. After taking her picture, he rushed the terrified 9-year-old to a hospital. The two remain friends. (📹 @nbcasianamerica / @nbcnews) #1973WarsSeria #MarchWarsSeria #30MarchWarsSeria #VietnamWarSeria #NapalmBombsSeria #BombsSeria #WarsSeria #30March2017seria #30MarchSeria #2017MarchSeria #2017ThursdaySeria #ThursdayMarchSeria #ThursdaySeria (Sài Gòn)
A photograph ushers forgiveness
You've probably seen this photo, and possibly read about the recent 40th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize image. The woman in front of the lens is Kim Phuc Phan Thi, fleeing a napalm strike during the Vietnam War, photographed by Nick Ut.
I read in another paper today that she thanked journalists, nurses and doctors for coming to her aid, which allowed her to survive and live today in Toronto.
She said that she thought she would "die of hatred" after going through the bombing, and having two cousins killed in the very fire she escaped. "In order to be really free, I had to learn to forgive," she said to the Canadian Press. "A moment captured on film turned one child's atrocity into a story of hope and survival."
I've been reading Calvin Seerveld lately on various aspects about creating art, having been introduced through a friend. He uses words like "nuanced cheer" and "proffer spilled perfume" to describe how he envisions the purpose of art, and his words have stuck on me like how wine refuses wash from cloth.
I wonder if the photographer had any idea what kind of impact his photograph of Kim Phuc would have on viewers. Probably nil. I presume that the shot was taken in the moment--how can you possibly anticipate a vulnerable moment like that--but Ut was there and showed the rest of the world what he saw.
It may not be "nuanced cheer" that this photo brings, but hearing Kim Phuc say that looking at this image forty years later no longer brings back the unbearable weight of historical and emotional turmoil--instead, eventual forgiveness--that must make the photograph worth more than the permanent lifetime of a Pulitzer.