Photographer Behind Baby Wrapped in American Flag Speaks Out

Rachel Bertsche
·Writer
Updated
image

Vanessa Hicks' photo of a baby wrapped in an American flag hits a nerve. (Photo by Vanessa Hicks/Facebook)

A photographer whose image of a baby wrapped in an American flag went viral this week is appealing to Facebook users today to name the controversial photo.

Vanessa Hicks, a Navy veteran and photographer in Virginia Beach, posted the photo, which was taken at a military family’s newborn photo shoot, on Sunday. The image shows a baby boy lying in an American flag and held up by his father, who is wearing his military uniform.

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“This is what he was fighting for, his son wrapped in an American flag,” Hicks told ABC News of the father in the image. 

But the backlash to the photo was swift, with users accusing Hicks of desecrating the flag. One Facebook page, entitled “You Call Yourself A Photographer?” was dedicated to attacking the photographer. Wrote the unnamed creator of the page, according to USA Today, “The flag is not a prop. I repeat: THE FLAG IS NOT A PROP. To use the American flag in such a way is disrespectful, rude, tacky, disgusting, and against the U.S. Flag Code.” The page has since been taken down.

But, according to a Facebook update posted Friday afternoon, Hicks has also received an outpouring of support and more than 2,000 messages via Facebook. “I have been INUNDATED with requests from you all asking if you could purchase a print!” she writes. “Again, keep in mind this was never the intent or anything for this image. I have been [in] contact with the family to see how they feel about that, and they are supporting it!”

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Not only will Hicks be selling the print, she’ll be giving it an official name, too. “I am calling to YOU all, the ones that have supported this, made it viral, who sent me so much LOVE, what would YOU name it?” she asks. “Throw some ideas out there and I will chose a name with the help of the family and hopefully chose a name tomorrow!!!!”

The request for name suggestions was shared more than 200 times in the first hour after it was posted, and ideas have come pouring in. Included in the more than 375 suggestions: “American Made,” “Freedom,” “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness” and “The Cradle of Freedom.”

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