{"id":509,"date":"2013-11-11T09:02:13","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=509"},"modified":"2013-11-11T09:02:13","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:02:13","slug":"an-my-le-at-the-bma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=509","title":{"rendered":"An-My L\u00ea At the BMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn’t what a picture is of, it is what it is about.<\/em> —\u00a0 <\/em>John Szarkowski<\/p>\n

On Oct. 12, 2013 I posted my thoughts on a conversation between BMA photography curator Ann Shafer and An-My L\u00ea whose large format images are currently on display at the BMA.\u00a0 Ms. Shafer also provided insight to Ms. L\u00ea\u2019s work in a presentation to the Baltimore Camera Club.\u00a0 Sufficiently intrigued I went to see the exhibit on Nov. 6.\u00a0 Despite the quality of digital projection, there is nothing like seeing the prints close-up and in person.\u00a0 I got a very different impression at the museum compared to seeing the images on the screen.<\/p>\n

The museum notes commented on the images’ authenticity in comparison to what is typically portrayed by Hollywood:\u00a0 \u201cscenes that show the activity surrounding combat rather than the combat itself.\u201d \u00a0Also noted was the \u201cglobal reach of US Armed Forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latter was most prominent in \u201cManning the Rail\u201d which captured sailors in close, but also dozens of ships fading into the misty distance as if they went on forever. One of the great advantages of the view camera preferred by Ms. L\u00ea is effective control of both depth of field and perspective and both seemed characteristic of and key to the impact of several of the displayed images.<\/p>\n

In \u201cIce Operations, Arctic Wars USS New Hampshire\u201d a submarine at the surface is basically embedded in the ice.\u00a0 The feeling of the cold was countered by the low, warm early morning or late afternoon light.\u00a0 The soft warm light was in contrast to the sailors in their dark, vaguely threatening environmental suits.\u00a0 Perhaps it was the contrast or the content, but I found this to be one of the more appealing images.<\/p>\n

Ms. L\u00ea captured a \u201cSea Knight Helicopter\u201d in flight so perfectly it is amazing.\u00a0 Wheels of the helicopter were right on horizon, sharply focused, perfectly centered, flying toward the viewer with a little of ship showing on lower left.\u00a0 Amazing luck or craft or combination of both, the oncoming helicopter was impactful, but I cannot characterize the feeling effectively:\u00a0 awe, threat or rescue, this image leaves the assessment to the viewer.<\/p>\n

In FOD (Foreign Object Detection) Walk USS Pelieu the control of perspective to create an almost geological impression of the huge superstructure with rails, catwalks and domes looming over people on deck as if the tiny humans were walking under an eroded cliff face.\u00a0 A propeller close up on the left side of the image continued that impression as if there were huge boulders on the opposite side of the canyon.<\/p>\n

There were four images taken at 29 Palms in the California desert. I felt that these images would seem work-a-day, mundane and unremarkable to soldiers participating, but gives the outsider a view of the day-to-day of soldiers, and seemed somewhat energetic in spite of the content.<\/p>\n

Four images from Viet-Nam 1994-1998 to some extent reminded me of William Eggleston: pictures out of time, mundane.\u00a0 Folks (a family?) near a duck pond; kids playing soccer by apartment building, clothes out to dry; kids flying kites in a park.\u00a0 The images captured a slice of life in Viet-Nam during that period.<\/p>\n

The museum is free, parking on the street is usually available, and the other noteworthy, well-crafted images are worth seeing in person.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It isn’t what a picture is of, it is what it is about. —\u00a0 John Szarkowski On Oct. 12, 2013 I posted my thoughts on a conversation between BMA photography curator Ann Shafer and An-My L\u00ea whose large format images … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[1],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8lcUy-8d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":512,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richeskinphoto.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}