An-My Lê

29 Palms: Guard, Combat Operations Center
2003–2004

Not on view

Date
2003–2004

Classification
Photographs

Medium
Gelatin silver print mounted on board

Dimensions
Sheet: 26 1/2 × 38in. (67.3 × 96.5 cm) Image: 26 1/2 × 38in. (67.3 × 96.5 cm) Mount (board): 26 1/2 × 38 × 1/8in. (67.3 × 96.5 × 0.3 cm)

Accession number
2005.78

Series
29 Palms

Edition
1/5

Credit line
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Henry Nias Foundation

Rights and reproductions
© An-My Lê

API
artworks/25094

Audio

An-My Lê

From Whitney Biennial 2017 (Spanish)

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An-My Lê

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Narrator: An-My Lê realizó todas estas fotografías en Nueva Orleans y sus alrededores. La serie comenzó con la fotografía de la escena de una batalla. Lê la tomó en el sitio donde se rodó Free State of Jones, un filme acerca de fuerzas rebeldes que pelean contra los confederados durante la Guerra de Secesión en Estados Unidos.
An-My Lê: Me interesó mucho trabajar con la historia en el momento actual.
El sitio de la filmación era de 2015 y regresé a Nueva Orleans en 2016, precisamente después de la masacre de Charleston, momento en el que se estaba realizando una impugnación de todos los monumentos a los generales y líderes confederados.
Ante la solicitud de retirar todos los monumentos, surgió una profunda controversia; entonces comencé a fotografiar esos monumentos porque eran un testigo indiscutible de la historia, pero quizá también porque nos recuerda que la historia se repite o que el progreso no era un progreso genuino. Así, este ciclo de pasado, presente y futuro resultó interesante. Pienso que a medida que las elecciones se fueron volviendo más complicadas y todos sentimos angustia intentando entender lo que la gente nos decía, experimenté una suerte de urgencia y caí en la cuenta de que el sitio del rodaje y los monumentos iban de la mano. Entendí que necesitaba algo más acerca del presente; necesitaba, con ayuda de esas dos series de fotografías, cuestionar el futuro y volver a conectarnos con nuestra historia. Por tanto, regresé a Nueva Orleans durante la época de las elecciones y tomé muchas fotografías.
An-My Lê

From Whitney Biennial 2017

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An-My Lê

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Narrator: An-My Lê made all of these photographs in New Orleans and the surrounding area. The group began with the photograph of a battle scene. Lê made it on the set of Free State of Jones, a film about a rebel force that fights the Confederacy in the American Civil War.
An-My Lê: There's something about working with history in the present time that ended up being so attractive to me.
The film set was 2015 and I returned to New Orleans 2016 and this was right after the Charleston Massacre, and all of the memorials to Confederate Generals and other leaders were being contested.
All of the monuments were be asked to be taken down and there was a huge controversy, so I started photographing those monuments because they are such an incredible reminder of the history but also perhaps there was something about history repeating itself, or something about progress not quite being progress. So this looping around of past, present, and future was interesting. I think as the elections became more complicated and we all got anxious about trying to make sense of what people were telling us, I gained a kind of urgency and I realized that the film set and the monuments went hand-in-hand, and I realized that I needed something that was more about the present, but also with the help of those other two sets of pictures, question the future and connect us back to our history. And so I went back down to New Orleans around election time and made a lot of photographs then.