Hosed, 2004

Toned silver gelatin print, 20.5 x 14.75 finished to 22 x 28 inches. Collection of the Anchorage Museum, the University of Alaska Museum of the North and private collections.

Hosed is based on the Eddie Adams Pulitzer Prize winning photograph depicting the 1968 execution of a Vietcong prisoner on the streets of Saigon. The Adams photograph was so powerful that it was credited with having a galvanizing effect on turning the tide of opposition to the war in Vietnam. The unidentified prisoner, who had just murdered eight South Vietnamese citizens, was shot by General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, director of South Vietnam’s police force. For the rest of his life, Loan was haunted by the execution. He relocated to the United States after the fall of Saigon where he ran a pizzeria near Dale City, Virginia until 1991. His identity was eventually discovered and shortly thereafter his business failed. He died of cancer in 1998.