Pulitzer Photo Analysis

This photo was took in 1973, called ‘The napalm nirl of Trangbang’. The girl in the center, her name was Kim Phuc, she was nine years old. She was running with her brothers and cousins, because of a accidentally dropped napalm by South Vietnam, which is their country’s own army. The girl was running naked because she just got rid of her burning clothes. Soldiers followed them are South Vietnam Force. The photo was took by Associate Press photographer Kick Ut. 

Now, it has been more than 40 years since this photo was taken. In a interview, the girl who is already 53 years old, talked about her experience with this photo. She said that at first, she hated this photo so much, because she thought this photo made her embarrassing. She didn't want to face that horrible time and the terror. She tried to be as far away as she can with the photo. But after years of struggle, she realized that if this photo didn't capture that horrible moment, this history might be uncovered. She started a charity to help children suffering from the war, called Kim Foundation International. Kim now also do speeches about her experience and try to help more people with similar experience. 

My first impression of this photo is the strong contrast between the girl and others. The girl was naked while others were clothed, besides, this girl was in the very center of the picture, it just attract people’s eye. Another strong contrast is between the soldiers and these kids. Soldiers were tall, armed, creates an impression of powerful; while these kids were small, crying, terrified running, without arm and even without clothe.   

This photo captured a frozen action moment of kids running,and also the moment of crying, creates a atmosphere of terrifying and tense. The angel of view to be eye level of solders behind the kids, and since these solders are taller and more powerful than these crying, running kids, this also creates a feeling of oppressed. The picture has a much depth of field, the angle of view is low, which allows audience to see the black smoke behind as also the terrified expressions on these kids faces. There is a invisible horizontal line with a slightly curve inside the picture, gave the picture a sense of movement, and a clear view on each characters. The photo is filling the frame, also creates the atmosphere of tense and oppressed. 

In my opinion, I think this photo transferred an idea to the audiences, that having war is creates a hell on earth. In China, we all believe that things you do, will eventually come back to you later. If you create a war to others and one day this will also happens on you, just like the story behind this photo, that citizens were being attacked by their own army. And if you treat others good and friendly, they will also treat you well. This picture reminds me that there still a lot of similar picture happens all over the world everyday, and so many children are running for their lives.