Newspaper Article

REFLECTIONS OF WAR, ONCE REMOVED

MICHAEL KOSTER, ALL IMAGES COURTESY APERTURE FOUNDATION

2006

Overview

The \"Small Wars\" series is easily L's most complex and conflicted. Over four summers she was allowed to photograph re- enactments of Vietnam battles only if she agreed to participate in the action. It was disconcerting, but also empowering, she said, to be assigned the role of a Viet Cong sniper. The re-enactors, most of whom had never seen combat, were compulsive about getting the details right -- using period uniforms, weaponry, and equipment and staying true to the history of actual battles. Yet they fired blanks, not real bullets. The forests of Virginia are far removed from the dense jungles and varied terrain of Vietnam. The disconnect between reality and dramatization is not directly addressed, yet it is the overpowering theme. Many will naturally (perhaps fairly, perhaps not) view the re-enactments as a disturbing and pathetic theater of the absurd, but L resists what must have been a temptation to mock her subjects. The men are presented in a straightforward, nonjudgmental fashion, blending into the Virginia landscape. L's book Small Wars (Aperture, 2005) comprises three emotionally charged photographic series -- \"Vit Nam,\" \"Small Wars,\" and \"29 Palms,\" which attempt to divine the larger picture. The first is the result of her return to Vietnam after graduating from Yale University in 1993 and her subsequent struggle to come to grips with a country largely defined by a war that no longer exists. The second depicts enthusiasts who re-enact battles from the Vietnam War in the forests of Virginia. The last is the result of L's failed attempt to become an embedded photographer with the armed forces in the current conflicts in Iraq. Instead, she was allowed to photograph training exercises and war games in the California desert in preparation for combat.

• Publisher: Santa Fe New Mexican
• Subject: Woodward, Richard