Jezebel
One of our favorite moments in the history of this blog was when we read that the lensman behind this shot of Paris Hilton sobbing on her way back to jail was the same guy who won a Pulitzer for that famous pic of little naked running Kim Phuc some thirty five years to the day before, Nick Ut. We weren't alone! In those frenzied End Of Year attempts to "make sense of 2007" some newspapers called up Nick Ut for a chance to wax philosophical re how in the intervening three and a half decades every living US American organism has lost 30 I.Q. points. In brief: Nick, a native Vietnamese and AP photographer (he's just "grateful to have work," he says) was back in LA after a vacation home to Vietnam for a vacation in commemoration of the 35th anniversary of his iconic antiwar image. "When I came back from vacation overseas, I hear it's a big story; I say I want to be there," he tells the Post's Phil Kennicott, who proceeds to articulate all the woe-is-civilization outrage readers of this blog are too beaten-down and desensitized to articulate at this point:
Paris Hilton has nothing to do with the war. She is not a cause, or a consequence, or a byproduct, or anything else to do with the war. But in her vapidity, her ridiculousness, her unashamed ignorance and narcissism, she suggests to the world that the values we project through means such as war are not decent, serious values. The image of Kim Phuc said to us, "Here is the war, look at it, it's horrible." The image of Paris Hilton, seen in the context of Ut's earlier photograph, says, "Oh, is there a war on? Really? Like, whatever."
Uh, yeah sorta, says Ut, who saved the life of Kim Phuc, who is now 44 and runs a charity. As he tells the UK's Telegraph:
'It's a strange feeling because I know I will never take another photograph that's as good as this - not as long as I live. When I look at my photograph of Kim and my photograph of Paris Hilton, I think they are both good pictures, in their way. I suppose the big difference is that I grew to love Kim, whereas... well, frankly, I don't give a damn about Paris Hilton.'
Poles And Decades Apart, Two Silent Screams Issue Discomfiting Reverberations [Washington Post]
Nick Ut: Double Negative [Telegraph]
Comments
Bravo Nick Ut. But wait, there's a war going on? I hadn't heard.
how incredibly sad and it's not even noon.
on the other hand, cheers to Ut for saving a little girl and not giving a "damn about Paris Hilton"
*cheers loudly*
I'm sure this story will run as a sidebar to one of those "Biggest Celebrity Meltdowns of 2007" stories. Sigh.
I'll be in the corner, drinking until this goddamn year is over.
@jenndavo: Oh, I know. I'm sure it will also run with an In and Out for 2008:
In: Pregnancy
Out: DUI
Stupid celebrity whores.
@jenndavo: You wanna race? The guy a few cubicles down has a bottle of Stoli hidden inside his filing cabinet. I can probably swipe a few chugs when he's at lunch.
articulate all the woe-is-civilization outrage readers of this blog are too beaten-down and desensitized to articulate at this point
I know, right? I used to be able to go on paragraph long rants about her uselessness and what it means for society, but at this point I'm like "Syphilis infested wonky-eyed loser. Meh."
@jenndavo: Yeah. This year has sucked really bad. 2007, The Year of the Celebrity! 2007, The Year Reality Television Really Hit it's Stride! 2007, The Backlash Against Everything Literate and Educated!
We can has backlash against the backlash now, plz?
@JessicaLovejoy: See: "Stupid Celebrity Whores" two posts up.
I've just got nothing left for her. Or most of the others, for that matter.
@jenndavo: today is one of those days i wish i could have a secret gin and tonic at my desk...
@Reluctant Financier: YOU'RE ON! We'll chart our drunkenness through the increasing number of typos. Mmmm, Stoli ...
@hortense: I think People.com has something like that already, adjacent to the "2007: The year of the tiny dog!" story. (I'm not joking. Check out the bottom of this page: [www.people.com],,20160055,00.html)
Okay, off topic but...
do you pronounce her name like "fuck"?
If so, I am SO changing my last name to Phuc!
Now what he needs to do on the next 30th anniversary is to get paris hilton to run down the street naked because of global warming. Now that would be an iconic picture.
@biscuitdoughjones: On that note, I truly believe my cat is smarter than Paris et al, and has more of a personality too. He iz a smrt kitteh.
You mean that the pain of getting napalmed is not the same as getting thrown in jail because you're stupid?
Fuck you Marshall Mcluhan. Context is everything.
Nick Ut is the man.
a onclick="javascript:return jumpToComment(339170,'CommentBox', this.href);" href="http://jezebel.com/339170/kim-phuc-photographer-nick-ut-i-suppose-the-big-difference-is-thatfrankly-i-dont-give-a-damn-about-paris-hilton#c3497588">hortense: I haz no html skillz, sorry.
[www.people.com],,20160055,00.html
And I'm all for backlash in 2008, people. We'll bring back the flashmob, charging into supermarkets and destroying every copy of People on the shelves. Viva la Revolucion!
Some of the blame rests with the photographers and the media. They make Paris Hilton a big story. Why are they outside her house when there are far more important things/people to record right now in history. What about New Orleans? It is left out of the media and completely forgotten, but a huge problem in America right now. What about soldiers returning home in vet hospitals? That was a big story that was quickly forgotten.
@weaponofchoice: Dude, from someone who's spent 4 years waiting tables at a Thai restaurant: Don't go there.
The fact that there's a cussy Phucket (that's Pooh-kett, y'all), Thailand joke in 'Juno' makes me stabbity.
@tokenblackgirl:
evil and brilliant!
@badmutha: A stuffed cat has more brains and personality than Paris Hilton.
No disrespect to your kitty though. I have no doubt he's fantastic!
@biscuitdoughjones: Have any good recipes to share? My one and only resolution for 2008 is to make the perfect curry dish.
@biscuitdoughjones: whoops! My bad. SOrry!
@DorothyZbornak: Charlie the cat totally rocks, so i can't get upset and he wouldn't feel dissed.
Forget Paris.
We'll always have Kim.
2008 = karmic reset button. At least according to my chiropractor. Praise Jebus its about time.
@weaponofchoice: It's cool, mang. I'm just a sensitive thing when not on the internetz, and I hated it when customers used the Phuket-named dishes on the menu as an excuse to scream curses at me. Cuz it ain't even pronounced that way, yo!
@jenndavo: If you can find a good Thai market in your area, there are lots of great pre-bottled curry pastes you can buy (Trade secret? The restaurants totally use them!). Panang Curry is my fave. Just use the paste, some kaffir lime leaves, a smidge of basil leaves, and whetever else you want. Curry heaven, baybee!
@pantycrickets: I blame the public and the media - the media wouldn't report on shit like celebutard jailbirds if the public wasn't eating it up like crack-infused calorie-free candy. Large chunks of the public don't want to think about things like the war, or New Orleans, or health care, or the poor treatment of returning soldiers, or the mortgage crisis because solving real problems is hard, and it's much easier to open up People, see who's gained weight, see who's preggers, see who's a fashion disaster and read some feel-good story about a "real" person who's survived something bad or done something good for someone else.
@biscuitdoughjones: I'm in! Where, pray tell, will the "Backlash Against the Backlash" be held? I've got to get my airfare on, such as.
@langtry: Let's do it right here. 2008- The year America stopped being a bunch of fucking morons. Jezebel = Typhoid Mary for the intelligentsia plague.
@AmazonRedheadedUberVixen: Agreed, although it makes me sad because I think most people no longer believe that solutions to those problems are within reach. We've pulled away from doing anything because either the people controlling the funds or running the doing are doinks, or the people being helped are doinks. They aren't always, and I don't want to get into a big thing about it, but it seems like I've spent this whole holiday season reading about assholes who take advantage of stuff like Operation Santa Claus, or that twatwaffle who used the war to give her daughter a good story to win the Hannah Montana essay contest. I usually do feel rather soul-weary at this time of year, but it's much worse than usual after a crap year like this has been.
He shouldn't feel too bad about the Paris shot. He revealed her to be the cowardly attention whore that she is, and contributed to the world's utter loathing and contempt for her. That's not such a terrible thing.
@Trixie from Toronto: And he probably made enough money off of that shot to continue to fund his really important work, so everyone wins.
@weaponofchoice: I have a friend who's last name is Quach. Being all American about it, I assumed it was pronounced "Kwatch". I finally asked her how to say it, and I swear to god, she told me it was pronounced "What" (but super-fast, almost without a vowel).
Chalk it up to a very challenging language that the French had to go and create a non-sensical alphabet for. I'll go out on a limb and say that "Phuc" is probably pronounced a little differently than it looks.
Yes.
What's weird is the photo of Paris Hilton isn't even good..despite his words I guess. It's a blurry paparazzi shot that could have been taken with a 20 dollah point and shoot and it's fucking ridiculous that a comparison is even being made..to me it's a stretch and an excuse to read more into Paris so we can excuse our society's love-hate obsession. This says nothing about his skill as a photographer or decency as a human being because he's obviously skilled and more than decent. It's just so horrible that we're trying to talk about Paris in comparison to Vietnam. It just doesn't work for me.
@tokenblackgirl: Love. This. Idea.
Love Nick Ut too.
@badmutha: One of my cats opened a can of cat food by flipping the cap on top. He didn't actually manage to pull it back obviously, but still, he managed to open the seal. That is WAY more than Paris Hilton could do for herself if she was trapped in a room with only a can of cat food (of the flip-top variety).
I have to confess that I did feel sorry for Paris when she went to jail. But obviously the photo of her didn't move me or make an impact on me the way that the photo of Kim did and still does. I mean other than it being the same guy who pushed the shutter button, these pictures are a bit apples and oranges, y'know?
I like the Paris picture. It has no cultural relevance or artistic substance, I know. But still, seeing her cry makes me giggle.
Paris represents the ugly truth about our current societal state. She shows us the parts of ourselves we don't want to see, as a society. This is why we love to ridicule her the way we do.
I find it sad that with the world in the state that it is today the only thing that more people are concerned about besides Britney Spears is Paris Hilton. The world is falling appart and the only people can say is lets sit back and watch it with a beer in our hand. I'm sorry but the pictures that Nick Ut took used to mean something. This picture of Paris means one thing that evetually evrey one becomes a sell out.
@Foxxy1: uh, what? I think you miss the point entirely. The photographer was contrasting both pieces of his work by saying he cares deeply for the subject of one (Kim, since he saved her life) and doesn't give a damn about the subject of the other.
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