An-My Lê's 30-Year Practice Explores War Trauma Through Celestial Imagery and Large-Format Photography

An-My Lê's work, which spans more than thirty years, delves into the interplay between the trauma of war and the vastness of the cosmos. The artist, who was born in Saigon in 1960, was evacuated by the American government at the age of 15. After the US lifted its trade embargo, she revisited Vietnam in 1994, leading to her significant photographic series 'Vietnam,' which she refined until 1998. Utilizing a large-format wooden Deardorff field camera, Lê explores the imprints of conflict on both the environment and human psyche. Her 'Vietnam' series maintains a poetic detachment, with only one image, 'Untitled, Nam Ha' (1994), resembling a portrait. This photograph features a girl on the brink of adolescence, looking away from the lens, and is imbued with ambiguity through her military-style hat, a string of beads, and a dark stain on her shirt reminiscent of blood. The lengthy exposure time of Lê's vintage camera required the subject to pose intentionally, adding complexity to the seemingly spontaneous moment.