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Article Excerpt
AN-MY LE: SMALL WARS
OCTOBER 26, 2006-JANUARY 6, 2007
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY, COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO
CHICAGO
WAR FARE: WORKS BY ASHLEY GILBERTSON, SEAN HEMMERLE, SARAH PICKERING, MARTHA ROSLER, AND SEAN SNYDER
OCTOBER 26, 2006-JANUARY 6, 2007
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY, COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO
CHICAGO
Two separate but closely related exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago display representations of war. In "Small Wars" Victnamese American photographer An-My Le combines two of her series, "Small Wars" (1999-2002) and "29 Palms" (2003-04), documenting how wars in Vietnam and Iraq respectively are prepared for and reenacted in America. "War Fare" is a selection of works from five photographers each representing war from a different perspective. The two exhibits, both curated by Karen Irvine, comprise a partial and critical catalog, a typology of the range and disparate functions of images of war:
Most readers of this publication have been taught that the presence of black and white and as many shades of gray as we can achieve in a negative are the optimum and essential conditions for good black-and-white photography. Le's photos of the military training ground at 29 Palms in Southern California's Mojave Desert have a grayness (despite the presence of the full-spectrum; her craft is impeccable) that contests the rules and conventions for black-and-white photography. The lack of light effects reminds the viewer that visual polarities imply a drama that correlates with western cultural ideas about conflict. The sense that something is going to happen, the anticipation and tension leading to eventual resolution, accompany pictorial conventions of drawing and printmaking that evolve into black-and-white photography. These literary ideas and heroic tropes are part of the same cultural vocabulary that includes visual hierarchies, pictorial depth, conquest, and ownership. Representations...
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