The Burning Monk, Unveiled
Malcolm Browne's riveting account of his iconic photo, which led to a newly-discovered angle.
Warning: This story contains graphic photographs. Viewer discretion is advised.
“No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one,” President John F. Kennedy remarked after seeing Malcolm Browne's photo capturing the shocking suicide of a Buddhist monk in Saigon on June 11, 1963.
I interviewed Browne in 2011 when I was the international picture editor of TIME. It was fascinating to hear, first hand, the circumstances leading to his now-iconic photo of Thich Quang Duc. Here’s our conversation, edited for brevity.