Make Agent Orange History

Phan Thi Kim Phuc runs from a Napalm attack on her village. Photo Credit: (Nick) Ut Cong Huynh, Vietnam, The Associated Press.

Associated Press photographer Nick Ut has been selected to receive the 2011 Asian American Journalism Association Lifetime Achievement Award, a high honor given to an individual who has demonstrated “courage and commitment to the principles of journalism.”

Ut is best known for his 1972 Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of 9-year old Phan Thi Kim Phuc as she ran naked fleeing a napalm attack on Route 1 in South Vietnam. Ut rushed the girl to a hospital and saved her life. His photo is widely credited with helping to end the war.

In 2010, Ut returned to Vietnam with fellow journalist and Vietnam Reporting Project fellow Connie Schultz to document the continuing impact of Agent Orange. Their work was published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on January 30th 2011.

Read more about Nick Ut here.

A young girl learns to sew at the Vietnam Friendship Village. Photo Credit: (Nick) Ut Cong Huynh, Vietnam Reporting Project.

Photojournalist and Vietnam Reporting Project fellow Catherine Karnow travelled to Vietnam in July 2010 to document two families who continue to struggle with the long-term impact of Agent Orange in Da Nang, one of Vietnam’s hardest hit cities. In June her work was awarded a gold medal in the “Professional, Press-Features” category of the Prix de la Photographie.

Read more here and watch this video of Karnow telling the stories of the people she photographed.