  Direct photon production in association with a heavy quark can serve as an
excellent tool for the study of the heavy quark distributions. Currently it is
believed that heavy quarks are produced radiatively inside the nucleon, and so
there is no need to take into account heavy quark parameters inside global PDF
analyses. Certain models taking into account the possibility of an intrinsic
charm component exist. Here we present how these affect the \gamma + c cross
section. While at pA collisions the potential of this process to constrain the
gluon nuclear PDF which is currently largely unconstrained is presented.
