MILAN - Sixty-one photographs by Associated Press photojournalist Nick Ut will be on display at Palazzo Lombardia from 6 to 31 May.
The exhibition entitled 'From Hell to Hollywood' traces Ut's career fifty years after the shot that earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1973, 'Napalm girl', a symbol of the war in Vietnam.
"I was on 'Route 1' at 8 am - recalled Ut - I saw many bombs dropped near the temple where Kim was. A helicopter dropped two bombs on a pagoda. And immediately after those with napalm. there were survivors, then I saw many people come out of the black smoke: old people, women, children. And Kim running ".
Kim herself appears in several of the images on display in Milan, taken both at the time of the conflict and at a later stage in her life, when the photojournalist met her again, now an adult.
"I'm not sure how I survived and how I am here. - Kim Phuc explained today - My story began with a bombing and a photo. I am just one of those children who have suffered and suffer in wars. An ' icon. Like my photo. I became a symbol of war following that shot. This is how my life of witness began. The first time I saw my photo, with me naked, I was shocked. I felt this way. embarrassed, so vulnerable.
Later I faced so much pain, trauma, nightmares. The art of life is to live with love, hope and forgiveness because only this can truly change the world. "
"In these days more than ever - underlined the curator Ly Thi Thanh Thao - this exhibition is important to remind humanity of the tragedy of war. Kim Phuc's photo returns, after 50 years, to stir our consciences. I therefore hope that 'From Hell to Hollywood' can represent a concrete contribution of the Lombardy Region to the universal voice that today is insistently asking for an end to the war in Ukraine ".
Fifty years later, added the president of the Region Attilio Fontana, "we still hear the heartbreaking and desperate scream of that little girl, who has become a symbol of the horror of violence".
For Fontana, "today more than ever we have the duty to open our eyes to that cry of pain,