NICK UT: "From Hell to Hollywood"
Huynh Cong Ut was born in Long An, Vietnam (the part of French Indochina) on March 29, 1951. Soon after his beloved brother Huynh Thanh My was killed covering the Vietnam War for the Associated Press (AP) in 1965, Ut joined the prestigious news gathering agency. Known professionally as Nick Ut, he covered the war in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and the World Press Photo of the Year for his June 8, 1972 photo "The Terror of War," depicting children fleeing from a napalm bombing on their village of Trang Bang. Kim Phuc, the naked 9-year-old girl in the photograph became the face of all that as wrong with the war. Ut took her and several other wounded children to a hospital. If not for his actions, Kim would have died. They remain friends to this day. Ut himself was wounded three times during the war. In 1975 Saigon was about to fall to North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, Ut left Vietnam, eventually being relocated in Japan for Associated Press.
Two years later he was transferred to Los Angeles where he continued to work for AP. During that time, he covered wild fires, riots, earthquakes, the O.J. Simpson case, Hollywood celebrities, the Olympics, and the Pope's visit to the City of Angels. In 2012, on the 40th anniversary of his Pulitzer-Prize winning photo, Ut became the third person inducted into the Leica Hall of Fame for his contributions to photojournalism.
On March 19, 2017, he retired from AP after 51 years with the company, allowing himself to refocus his energies on his love of documenting cultures and the natural world, creating his own assignments and distributing his work through Getty Images. Nick continues to teach workshops, do speaking engagements and have his work featured in exhibitions.
DON BARTLETTI: "Between Two Worlds"
Decades before the current debate about migrant caravans and border security, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Don Bartletti was documenting the unprecedented migration of people across the San Diego/Tijuana border that dwarfs today's statistics.
Throughout the 1980's and 90's, this was a pathway of least resistance, a doorway to opportunity for millions of Mexican and Central Americans who were Too Hungry to Knock. Furthermore, the frontier effectively extended 70 miles into the hills of North San Diego County where Bartletti revealed a subculture of migrant laborer squatter camps - people dug in for a raw version of the California Dream.
These silver gelatin selenium toned prints, made by the artist with a vintage Leica Fotomat I enlarger, are more than finely crafted art of carefully focused journalism. These are the faces of those caught Between Two Worlds - a story that remains much the same today.
Don Bartletti was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his Los Angeles Times photo essay Enrique’s Journey. Other recognitions include the Robert F. Kennedy Grand Prize for International Photojournalism, George Polk Award; Scripps-Howard Foundation, Overseas Press Club, Pictures of the Year International and dozens more.
Duration: April 11th- June 3rd, 2019
Gallery Hours: MOnday - Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 12pm-5pm