An-My Lê
b. 1960, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Untitled, But Thap, Viêt Nam, 1996
Silver gelatin printEdition of 10 (8/10)
Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery

In 1975, An-My Lê evacuated her birthplace, Saigon, and resettled in the United States as a political refugee with her family. Her lens-based practice investigates representations of war and ways in which histories overlay physical landscapes, focusing not on direct military scenes but on spaces in which conflicts are rehearsed, reenacted, and historicized, such as staged battles, training exercises, and film sets.

The black-and-white photograph Untitled, But Thap, part of Lê's seminal project Viêt Nam, captures ruined towers in a rural, agrarian setting. This project began after the U.S. lifted its trade embargo on Vietnam in 1994, allowing Lê to return for the first time, and debuted in New Photography 13 at MoMA in 1997.

In this series, Lê's portrayals of the Vietnamese countryside, farmland, and villages offer profound reflections on personal, cultural, and universal histories.