Memory Rendering of Trang Bang
In his Memory Renderings series, Muniz took as his starting point those images that are so widely known, having been recorded in The Best of Life (1973) as well as in our collective memory, such as Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and the Kent State shootings. Redrawing the images from memory without the aid of reproductions, Muniz then photographed his drawings and printed them through a halftone screen. The memory-mediated image was thus recast as a halftone print, which is how the original images were dispersed into the world.
His rendering of Nick Ut's "Trang Bang, June 1972," if somewhat indistinct, is unmistakeable. Surely the most recognizable image from the Vietnam War, it is a perfect example--from a conflict that demonstrated photography's potential to influence public opinion and to contradict official thinking about war--of how photographs take on a life of their own.
His rendering of Nick Ut's "Trang Bang, June 1972," if somewhat indistinct, is unmistakeable. Surely the most recognizable image from the Vietnam War, it is a perfect example--from a conflict that demonstrated photography's potential to influence public opinion and to contradict official thinking about war--of how photographs take on a life of their own.
Artwork Details
- Title: Memory Rendering of Trang Bang
- Artist: Vik Muniz (Brazilian, born Sao Paulo, 1961)
- Date: 1990
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 24.7 x 16.7 cm (9 3/4 x 6 9/16 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 1995
- Object Number: 1995.323.2
- Rights and Reproduction: © Vik Muniz
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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