Nick Ut is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer who shot the iconic Vietnam War photo often referred to as “Napalm Girl.” He joined the AP as a combat photographer in Vietnam. After the war, he remained with the AP stateside, working as a court photographer. His photos of Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, Paris Hilton and other celebrities received widespread attention.
His work with the AP in Vietnam placed him at the pinnacle of his profession. The highlight of his career came on June 8, 1972, when he photographed Kim Phuc running and screaming down route 1 after her village had been bombed with Napalm by South Vietnamese planes. Immediately after making the photo, he rushed the girl to a hospital, which saved her life.
Ut’s photo of Kim Phuc received the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Spot New Photography. It was also named World Press Photo of the Year. Ut reunited with Kim Phuc after the war, and they remain close friends.
Robin Willis is the MACC’s Healing Arts Coordinator. She also works as the Exhibition and Events Manager and Director of Outreach. Robin has a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Clemson University with a minor in Entrepreneurship. She is a multi-discipline artist with emphasis in writing, mixed media abstract painting, alternative process photography, collage, and book arts and binding. In addition to her art practices, she holds several healing modalities certificates, such as extensive kundalini yoga teacher training and education, Reiki master, systemic family constellation facilitator, and depth psychology-based therapy trainings. As an avid learner, she explores and encourages others in their exploration in art, psyche, and our relationship to the micro and macro worlds within and around us. Influenced by John Muir’s quote, When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe, she fuses art, healing, and organization throughout her work and personal life as a creative-scientist minded person.
Kaylin Warden serves as the MACC’s Creative Design and Operations Manager. In this post, she oversees the organization’s graphic design work for exhibitions, events and special projects. She also coordinates the MACC’s arts outreach activities and assists with bookkeeping, among other duties. Kaylin, above all, is passionate about the arts. It comes as no surprise, then, that she is now pursuing a master’s degree in art history. When she’s not at the MACC, you can find her reading her favorite books (especially ones dealing with maritime mysteries), cooking, gardening, playing with her cat and two dogs, and cheering for the Nashville Predators.