What Kind of Camera Does a Genius Use?
|
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, at 11:07 AM
Ho Chi Minh City (eclipse crowd), 1995, from the series Viêt Nam. (An-My Lê/Courtesy Murray Guy, NYC)
Photographer An-My Lê was awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant last week, meaning she’ll get half a million dollars over the next five years. The ongoing focus of her work has been the military and war, something that has personal meaning to Lê. Born in Vietnam in 1960, Lê left in 1975 as a political refugee and resettled in the United States.
Over the past decade, Lê has explored many wars in many ways. Her tool of choice, however, is a cumbersome 19th century style camera, bigger than her head. (You can see it in the video here.) As she has photographed Vietnam War reenactors in Virginia and North Carolina, she has lugged this large format camera around, working slowly and carefully. Looking at her photos of various conflicts, some black-and-white, some color, it's hard to tell when they were taken, what's real and what is re-enacted. Her process gives a mystique and ambiguity to what could be, in front of another’s camera, a more expected scene.
Other Photo Features You May Like
Oxford Town, Red Hook, and Every Other Place Bob Dylan’s Ever Sung About, Mapped
Teenagers Hate Facebook, but They're Not Logging Off
This Is a Blog Post. It Is Not a “Blog.”
Why Do People Try to Deny Climate Change? What's in It for Them?
Should We Feel Bad for the 18-Year-Old in the Florida Lesbian Statutory-Rape Case?
How Much of Behind the Candelabra Is Actually True?
This 23-Ton Star Wars X-Wing Is the Largest Lego Model Ever Built
