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29 Palms: Security and Stability Operations (Good Saddam)

An-My Lê

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

An-My Lê, who arrived in the United States from Vietnam as a political refugee in 1975, explores the glorification of war in images of domestic and global U.S. military activity. Lê uses a large-format camera, similar to those employed by Civil War photographers, to document landscapes transformed by conflict. In the series 29 Palms, Lê photographs staged training sites built for American recruits in California’s Mojave Desert. Security and Stability Operations (Good Saddam) depicts former military housing transformed into a seemingly hostile environment when tagged with mock anti-American graffiti, examining the difference between simulated experiences and representations of actual war.
MEDIUM Gelatin silver photograph
DATES 2003–2004
DIMENSIONS sheet: 26 1/2 × 38 in. (67.3 × 96.5 cm) frame: 27 7/8 × 39 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (70.8 × 100 × 3.8 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 2016.34
CREDIT LINE Gift of Pamela and Arnold Lehman and Patricia and Randall Lewis
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION An-My Lê (American, born Vietnam, 1960). 29 Palms: Security and Stability Operations (Good Saddam), 2003–2004. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 26 1/2 × 38 in. (67.3 × 96.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Pamela and Arnold Lehman and Patricia and Randall Lewis, 2016.34. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2016.34_PS11.jpg)
EDITION Edition: 1/5
IMAGE overall, 2016.34_PS11.jpg., 2018
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © An-My Lê
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An-My Lê (American, born Vietnam, 1960). <em>29 Palms: Security and Stability Operations (Good Saddam)</em>, 2003–2004. Gelatin silver photograph, sheet: 26 1/2 × 38 in. (67.3 × 96.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Pamela and Arnold Lehman and Patricia and Randall Lewis, 2016.34. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2016.34_PS11.jpg)