The Five Most Shocking Claims Made by Netflix’s ‘The Stringer’

Finally the day has come: The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, a film about who really took the famous Napalm Girl photo during the Vietnam War, has dropped on Netflix meaning anyone with a subscription can now see what the fuss is all about.

PetaPixel has already published an in-depth review of the documentary as well as talking about it on this week’s PetaPixel podcast.

But here is a recap of the film’s biggest talking points and the five most shocking claims made in The Stringer, produced by the VII Foundation, Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Nick Ut Didn’t Take the Photo

It’s the entire premise of the film: Nick Ut, the photographer long credited with taking the famous image officially titled The Terror of War, did not take it. The film’s protagonist Gary Knight leads the hunt for the person they believe is the true author.

Nguyen Nghe, an ailing former freelancer, is discovered after the help of a local Vietnamese journalist who confirmed AP editor Carl Robinson’s story: that Ut really didn’t take the photo and that he was the one who pressed the shutter on arguably the most famous war photograph of all time.

Horst Faas Regularly Put His Name on Other People’s Photos

Horst Faas is a legend of photojournalism. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his Vietnam War photos and several World Press Photo awards. Yet Gary Knight, who has ties to Faas, says that the German photographer was regularly in the business of taking the work of local Vietnamese photographers and putting his name on it.

Knight says that he was told this by Faas’s friend and fellow titan of war photography, Tim Page.

The Stringer’s Wife Threw His Photo in the Trash

But what proof does the stringer, Nghe, have that he really did take the photo? He says that, along with $20, AP gave him a copy of the photo which he took home and put on the fridge. But his wife found the photo and demanded to know why he would keep such an image. Nghe says she threw it in the trash, denying him any proof that he took the photo. The couple later divorced.

Nghe Was the Most Accomplished War Photographer in Trang Bang That Day

The film goes through Nghe’s credentials and makes the bold claim that he was the most accomplished photographer on the road that day. However, Nick Ut, who was a staff photographer for AP, and David Burnett, who worked for Time magazine and Newsweek, were also present. There were also military photographers and TV film crews there that day.

The ‘Benign’ Exploitation of Local Vietnamese Stringers

One of the major themes of the film is power, privilege, and erasure. Knight speaks of a “benign” exploitation system of Vietnamese photographers and videographers. One of the more compelling interviews is with Nghe’s brother-in-law, Tran Van Than, who worked for NBC as a cameraman.

Van Than was at the scene of the Napalm Girl photo and says he knew that Nghe took the photo and Ut didn’t. When Knight asks why he didn’t speak up, he says, “Nobody would care.”