with an almost classical sense of place typical of traditional landscape
photography. Just as the medium has been sidelined from events, these
image-makers find their outlet away from the popular press, in the
expanded field of fine-art photography. In parallel to this, others have
focused on the timebeforethe event. At first glance An-My Lê’s series
29 Palms(2003–4) look like battlefield photographs from a contemporary
war zone. In fact, they document the military preparations ofusMarines
on American soil for conflict in the Middle East. This is not the ‘theatre
of war’ but its rehearsal studio.^25
That many photographers now work in these ‘late’ ways is not just
46 a consequence of their coming to terms with the marginal status of the
31 An-My Lê,Night Operations, 2003–4,
from the series29 Palms.
