War as Art

War is hardly ever seen as art. However documentation, especially in the form of photography, takes the concrete definition of war and manipulates it in the eye of the artist, in this case the photographer. The Binh Danh exhibit takes photographs from the Vietnam war and makes them into art. By placing the photographs on a different canvas, the artist manipulated war into expression. Danh may have many reasons as to why he took the pictures and put them on leaves and grass but the effect that the canvas has made the exhibit. It seemed like putting the pictures on leaves placed war in its natural habitat. War, especially in Vietnam took place in nature, with nature, and therefore putting the documentation on nature seemed like a natural progression. He took two completely different topics, nature and war, and married them in a cohesive manner. His technique of fusing art and documentation is extremely powerful, especially in the action shots.

A major difference between Sontag's article about art and Danh's exhibit is that Sontag looks at war art with a more critical eye. She said that "photographs have laid down the tracks of how important conflicts are judged and remembered." Danh took the photos and made art. Sontag looks at the photographs and wrote about how the pictures will dictate memories. Sontag says that however the pictures were taken is how they should be seen...living in 'real time.' The pictures show the truth about the situation without any sort of manipulation. It is just the picture, just the truth. Danh took the picture and put it on a different background which took away from the pure picture.