Identification: Vietnam Napalm, Nick Ut, 06-08-1972, Associated Press
Subject Matter: War photography, historical
Description: Photograph, 50 x 60

This image is a very familiar one. It should be – we should all be familiar with her terror ridden eyes, the skeletal figure of a girl running naked through the street, her clothes burned off by the Napalm – we should be familiar with this complete divestment of humanity.

Taken by Nick Ut during the Vietnam War, “Fleeing the Napalm Attack” was initially taken as a photo for the Associated Press.

Perhaps one of the most famous images of the Vietnam war, this image of a young girl screaming in terror as she flees from the only home she has ever known is one of the most visually scarring images of war. Often times photographs are accused of not being able to properly document the nature of tragedy, but what this photo has done is galvanize a string of once abstract concept into something terrifyingly real. The children in this photograph are innocent bystanders in a country torn and ravaged by the brutal effects of war.

The background is smoky and chaotic, and the lines of the road stretch back into some black oblivion of smog and napalm. Clearly the road ends in death, and is both obscured and ambiguous. The figures of the soldiers cut into the shapeless background like ominous, tangible figures of the consequences of war, and the play of light on their bodies is a stark contrast to the lit up bodies of the children in the foreground. The main focus of this photograph is undoubtedly the anonymous young girl in the center of the picture. Your eye is immediately drawn to her, and she is the only one unclothed. Furthermore her hands are outstretched, which is somewhat reminiscent of religious iconography, although the connection would be stronger if her palms were upturned. Essentially her nakedness attests to being stripped of all civil rights, human rights, and moralities. It, however, reveals a more frightning bit of humanity, as this is an act of dehumanization and the terrible violence inflicted upon the innocent that are unable to help themselves. There is something about her form that makes her seem almost in human - the protrusion of her rib cage through pallid flesh, the somewhat boneless nature of her right arm; the expression on her face and of those around her.

Some parallels can be drawn between this photo and the work of Munch, and more specifically, his artwork "The Scream." This isn't a technical term, but they are both silent pictures - they are cold yet rife with such horror that they don't speak to you the normal way images usually do. You want to feel distanced from the art, from the lessons it might have buried in the canvas about the crimes against of humanity. However whereas "The Scream" was a solitary piece that seemed, for a the most part stage set, this photograph feels like a fragment of a greater story, and that sense of realism that pervades it is what elicits further sympathy by the viewer. You are aware that the story is spilling out over the edges.