The Tre (Youth) Publishing House has recalled 1,000 textbooks containing a doctored version of one of the most iconic images of the American War.
According to the company’s director, Nguyen Minh Nhut, copies of Reflections of 150 Years' Saigon were pulled from the shelves when it came to light that a digitally altered version of Hubert van Es’ famous 1975 photo appeared within the publication, reports VnExpress.
After making its way onto social media, Vietnamese designer Truong Huyen Duc took credit for the Photoshopped image on his Facebook page, though he did not authorize the use of the image within the book.
The Dutch photographer’s picture, which shows an American helicopter evacuating people from the rooftop of 22 Ly Tu Trong, then home of the United States Agency for International Development and Central Intelligence Agency on April 29, 1975, has become one of the defining images of the war, particularly in the American collective consciousness.
Hubert van Es's original picture. Photo via Corbis.
The book’s author, photographer Tam Thai, took responsibility for the flub, admitting to VnExpress that he had sourced the image from the internet.
"I believed the picture to be real judging from the angle and the content, which matched the shot taken by Hubert van Es. In the book, the two pictures are juxtaposed to create a seamless flow of story," he told the news site, adding: "The captions under them were written by me based on my feelings and partly on an interview with Hubert when he returned to Saigon that I found online.”
A similar incident occurred last year when one of photographer Doan Cong Tinh’s war photos was found to be doctored after it was put on display at the 2014 Visa pour l'Image Perpignan photography festival in France.
[Photo via VnExpress]
