Kyoichi Sawada’s 1965 photo of a Vietnamese family fleeing the bombing of their village in Binh Dinh province, during the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam and the U.S. and its allies, has become a landmark image of 20th-century history. A mother, grandmother, two young children and a baby were photographed by the United Press International photographer wading through a deep river, clearly terrified, as U.S. troops tried to deny the area to Viet Cong snipers who had been harassing a nearby base.
The mother’s panicked face is in the center of the image. The family around her form a triangle that points to the right side of the frame, out to what’s coming next — the future, as it were (assuming that the image is read left to right). The five people in the picture are all facing different directions, giving us a sense of the panic and chaos of the situation. Will they find their way to safety?
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