0:00:11.889,0:00:14.139
An-My Lê:[br]I think I had very conflicted ideas about

0:00:14.139,0:00:15.092
the military.

0:00:18.040,0:00:19.760
It was something that drew me

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but at the same time it was something that[br]was repellent

0:00:22.260,0:00:25.775
because of you know what had happened in Vietnam.

0:00:27.249,0:00:30.913
I'm completely fascinated by the military structure.

0:00:31.430,0:00:36.886
So the idea of studying the preparation of[br]war became very interesting.

0:01:00.329,0:01:04.839
I think on my own I, I don't think I would ever[br]gain access to the military

0:01:05.758,0:01:07.020
and learn about all these things.

0:01:07.020,0:01:09.122
And so the camera is a pretext.

0:01:50.333,0:01:51.642
My camera's wood.

0:01:51.642,0:01:53.259
It's an old Deardorff.

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It's a substantial and cumbersome camera.

0:01:57.976,0:02:01.869
Because it's so cumbersome it makes me make[br]a particular type of picture.

0:02:01.869,0:02:05.620
I think it forces me to resolve questions.

0:02:05.620,0:02:09.379
So for example, photographing military exercises,

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I'm interested in what I have to go through[br]to make it work.

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And I think it forces me to make a particular[br]type of picture.

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Without really being conscious about it,

0:02:31.049,0:02:36.507
I think I've always tried to understand what[br]is the meaning of war

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and what does it really mean to live through[br]times of turbulence like that,

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and I think a lot of those questions sort[br]of fuel my work.

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When I first made the pictures in Vietnam,

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I was not at all ready to even deal with the war.

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War was part of life for us.

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And I've gone to school as a seven year-old[br]and arriving

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and finding the front gate of my school in smoke,

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because a mortar had just fallen there you[br]know at 5:30 in the morning.

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So it...it's something that we take with a stride.

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I think it was affecting our parents a lot more.

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As soon as I got to Vietnam,

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I realized that I was not so interested in[br]the specific psychology of each person,

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but I was more interested in the activities,

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what they do and how that activity is splayed[br]onto the landscape.

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It's that beauty that I wanted to embrace[br]in my work.

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For me, being able to go back to Vietnam and[br]make those pictures

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was a way to reconnect with a homeland or[br]this idea of what a homeland is.

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You know when you live in exile, things like[br]smell and memories,

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stories you hear from your childhood,

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all those things take on such importance,

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things that really connect you to the land.

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And unfortunately pictures don't smell,

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but if I could do that you know it would be[br]about smells as well.

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I think each body of work grows out of the[br]next one

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because I think you resolve something and[br]then you feel ready,

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to move on, to tackle another issue.

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And certainly, after Vietnam it was obvious[br]that I had not tackled the issue of war.

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Working with the re-enactors just became such[br]an opportunity.

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John Pilson:[br]The first time she went down,

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she went down by herself and I guess I was not....

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That was...that was one time, on all the things[br]she's done,

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that was like the one time I didn't....

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I was just concerned, you know,

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cause she didn't know anything about these guys

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and she found them on the Internet.

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And the whole idea of she's going down to[br]go out into the woods for a weekend with a bunch…

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bunch of, kind of paramilitary guys.

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An-My Lê:[br]Working with the re-enactors was very difficult

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because they had their own activity

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and I needed to interrupt them,

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to set up my own pictures.

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And at one point there was this issue of well,

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should I completely direct them?

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Should I hire them?

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Should I hire actors?

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And uh, I'm...I'm really glad that I,

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I didn't because I think not having complete[br]control was…

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was very interesting.

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I think it created these moments of uncertainty.

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Black and white was always my choice

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because of my interest in the drawings of things.

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In this picture for example, you know,

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it was the drawing of the branches coming[br]down, the drawing of the creek.

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We added the smoke.

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Uhm, you know this one Special Force guy or[br]re-enactor hiding behind this.

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So it was very clear in my mind what the drawing[br]of the landscape would be.

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In color it's not so clear I think in terms of space

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and then it would be about the space that's[br]in between the green and uh,

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the actual ridge here.

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I think in black and white I would have thought of...

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I think I would have made a slightly different picture.

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I'm not sure how to explain it.

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I think this was a black and white picture[br]that I made in color,

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because I was interested in all the lines[br]here and the,

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the ladder effect here of the ridge.

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And I think it was only afterwards that I[br]noticed how beautiful the gradation of greens

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was

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from the bottom to the top.

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I think of myself as a landscape photographer.

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I think my main goal is to try to photograph[br]landscape in such a way

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so that history could be suggested through[br]the landscape,

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whether industrial history or my personal[br]history.

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I try to stay away from light that's too dramatic.

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And I try not to use light too much as some[br]kind of dramatic counterpoint.

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I think I'd rather have something else--at[br]that element of drama.

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And I was very distraught when the war started[br]in March of 2003

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and I felt my heart going out for the soldiers,

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the young men and women who were being sent to Iraq.

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My immediate impulse was to go to Iraq.

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And when that did not work out

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and I saw pictures of marines training in[br]Twenty-nine Palms, I thought,

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well Twenty-nine Palms could be a stand-in for Iraq.

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And why not.

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When I'm working with the military, I still[br]think of landscape.

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Scale is also important to me because it shows[br]how insignificant we are

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and especially with the military,

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no matter how advanced, how hard we work,

0:10:00.720,0:10:03.440
it's still about transporting, you know,

0:10:03.440,0:10:09.785
all of these incredible new tanks across vast[br]landscapes.

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That's what you're up against and…

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and it's about really trying to capture that.

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And it's about also really trying to make[br]sense of it

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and that's why it's important to have an activity.

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And I think I immediately realized that the[br]kind of work that I make is not the standard,

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traditional, political work.

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You know it's not agitprop.

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And I think war is very complicated, it's[br]not black and white.

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But at the same time, what it is meant to[br]do is...is just horrible.

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And I think that's why the work seems ambiguous[br]and it's...it's meant to be.

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I am not categorically against war, but I think[br]we need to, you know,

0:12:50.660,0:12:52.802
try to avoid it as much as possible.