An-My Lê

An-My Lê (born 1960) is a Vietnamese American

photographer, filmmaker, author and professor at Bard An-My Lê
College.[1] Born 1960 (age 63–64)
Saigon, Vietnam
Her work is often focused on photographing subjects Nationality American
involving war, landscape, and how the two interact
Occupation Professor
within military combat.
Known for Photography
She is a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and has Awards MacArthur Fellowship John
received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation Fellowship (1997), the National Science Foundation
Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program
Award (2007), and the Tiffany Comfort Foundation Fellowship (2010).[2] Her work was included in the
2017 Whitney Biennial.[3]

Life and Work

An-My Lê was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1960. She fled from Vietnam in 1975, and after shuttling
through military bases in the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, finally settling in Sacramento, California.
[4] She studied biology at Stanford University, receiving her BA in 1981 and her MA in 1985. She

attended Yale School of Art, receiving her MFA in photography in 1993.[5]

In 1994, Lê visited Vietnam for the first time in almost 20 years, this is where she would capture
photographs for her photo series, Viêt Nam (1994–98).[6] Viêt Nam consists of black and white photos of a
schoolgirl field worker and several captures of the landscape.

In 1999, she started her project Small Wars (1999-2002). Lê took various shots of action and solitude
during a Vietnam War re-enactment, and as a condition for photographing the "battles", she was required
to participate herself, assuming the role of a Viet Cong sniper.

Lê then began her work on 29 Palms (2003–04), the site of production being a Marine Corps Air Ground
Combat Center in California, where training and preparation of American troops take place. Lê had the
opportunity to capture the rehearsals that on at the center during America's military preparation for the
wars in Iran and Afghanistan. [6]

Her book Small Wars was published in 2005. In November 2014, her second book, Events Ashore, was
published by Aperture. Events Ashore depicts a 9-year photographic exploration of the US Navy working
throughout the world. The project began when the artist was invited to photograph US naval ships
preparing for deployment to Iraq, the first in a series of visits to battleships, humanitarian missions in
Africa and Asia, training exercises, and scientific missions in the Arctic and Antarctic.[7]
In 2006, Lê created Trap Rock, a project commissioned for the Dia Art Foundation, where she
photographed a rock quarry North of New York City.[8]

Since 2015, she has been expanding on her newest project, Silent General (2015-)[9] which reflects the
current climate and culture within American politics and society. This project was prompted by the 2015
mass church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, and ties in historic and contemporary issues such as
the Civil War, racial tension, and the erasure of history are prevalent throughout the series.

Awards and grants

1993: Blair Dickinson Memorial Award, Yale University School of Art[10]
1995: CameraWorks Inc. fellowship[10]
1996: New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in photography[11]
1997: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship[11]
2004: John Gutmann Photography Fellowship[10]
2007: National Science Foundation, Antarctic Artists and Writers Program Award[12]
2010: Tiffany Comfort Foundation[13]
2012: John D. and Catherina T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship[10]

Books
Small Wars. New York: Aperture, 2005. Essay by Richard B. Woodward. Interview by Hilton
Als.
Events Ashore. New York: Aperture, 2014. Essay by Geoff Dyer.
An-My Lê: On Contested Terrain. New York: Aperture, 2020.
An-My Lê: Between Two Rivers. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2023

Exhibitions
2017 Whitney Biennial[3]
2023-2024: An-My Lê: Between Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières (https://
www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5467)

References
1. "Bard College | Faculty" (http://www.bard.edu/academics/faculty/faculty.php?action=details&i
d=517). Bard.edu. October 30, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
2. "An-My Lê — MacArthur Foundation" (https://www.macfound.org/fellows/868/).
macfound.org. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
3. "Whitney Biennial 2017 | Whitney Museum of American Art" (http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/2
017Biennial). whitney.org. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
4. Zhou, Dennis (December 4, 2023). "An-My Lê's Uncanny Images of War" (https://www.newy
orker.com/culture/photo-booth/an-my-les-uncanny-images-of-war). The New Yorker.
ISSN 0028-792X (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0028-792X). Retrieved May 7, 2024.
 5. Shindler, Kelly (October 30, 2007). "Spotlight on Protest: An-My Lê" (https://magazine.art21.
org/2007/10/30/spotlight-on-protest-an-my-le/). Art21 Magazine. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
6. Cotter, Holland (November 1, 2023). "An-My Lê Left Vietnam as a Child. She Returned as a
Photographer" (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/arts/design/an-my-le-photographs-viet
nam-moma.html). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0
362-4331). Retrieved May 7, 2024.
7. "Events Ashore" (http://aperture.org/shop/an-my-le-events-ashore-books). Aperture.org.
Retrieved July 26, 2017.
8. Marcoci, Roxana (May 4, 2023). "Between rivers and histories, An-My Lê's photographs
interrogate the complex fictions of warfare" (https://www.documentjournal.com/2023/05/betw
een-rivers-and-histories-an-my-les-photographs-interrogate-the-complex-fictions-of-warfar
e/). Document Journal. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
9. "An-My Lê" (https://www.mariangoodman.com/viewing-room/an-my-le-2020/). Marian
Goodman. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
10. "An-My Lê" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150110121815/http://www.anmyle.com/cvfull.ph
p). anmyle.com. Archived from the original (http://www.anmyle.com/cvfull.php) on January
10, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
11. "An-My Lê" (https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/an-my-le). Retrieved March 16,
2019.
12. "AN-My Lê: The landscape of Conflict" (https://stories.daylight.co/an-my-le-the-landscape-of
-conflict/24). stories.daylight.co. Retrieved March 16, 2019.
13. "Murray Guy " AN-MY Le, 2010" (https://murrayguy.com/exhibitions/an-my-le/). Retrieved
March 16, 2019.

External links
An-My Lê's Website: Official site (http://anmyle.com)
Thislongcentury.com (http://www.thislongcentury.com/?p=4254&c=120)
Blog.art21.org (http://blog.art21.org/2008/06/05/an-my-le-becoming-an-artist/)
Disart.org (https://web.archive.org/web/20100620141734/http://diaart.org/exhibitions/introdu
ction/7)

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