viz.

Jezebel picked up on a story in the Washington Post and the The Daily Telegraph about the surprising shared cameraman (Nick Ut) behind the following well-known photographs:

Apparently bloggers had a lot to say about the coincidence and the Post does an interesting analysis of comparative wartime photography. Jezebel focuses on Ut's personal involvement with the subject: "When I look at my photograph of Kim and my photograph of Paris Hilton," he says, "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." Turns out Nick Ut put down his camera, got Kim to a hospital and is credited with saving her life. This is an interesting issue with humanitarian rhetoric and the responsibilities of an author, brought to light by feelings of guilt expressed by photographers of trauma, as in the suicide of Kevin Carter

The Post talks about the pain in both pictures and the evocative potential of the pictures is captured in the photographer's reaction/non-reaction to the subject. The point is that we aren't supposed to give a damn about Paris Hilton and her ilk. They are creations of the narrative impulse itself, they exist because of the camera. In the 1972 photograph, the subject exceeds the frame of the photograph; her scream, her pain is a narrative excess that effects a call, a response-ability inherent to the work of witnessing.