Crossing the Farther Shore

From a distance, we see the shapes of mosquito nets. Coming closer, we see that these structures are made from old photographs stitched together: family photographs, the kind of snapshots that we might have in our own homes. Closer still, more details emerge: faces and places in the photographs, and poignant inscriptions on their reverse. The images are from South Vietnam during wartime; many of them show moments of peace and happiness.

Crossing the Farther Shore reflects Dinh Q. Lê’s longstanding fascination with found photographs of anonymous South Vietnamese families, taken before the country’s reunification in 1975. The artwork interweaves intimate personal histories with contentious official national histories, exploring the tensions between these. It also draws attention to the role of photography in memory and history.