Hmong Veteran, from the series 'Attention'

Pao Houa Her’s "Attention" series features portraits of Hmong American veterans who, before emigrating to the United States in the 1970s as refugees, fought in the Secret Army, a covert CIA military operation that enlisted Hmong and Laotian locals to combat the Northern Vietnamese Communists. Repeatedly denied official recognition from the U.S. government for their service, these men developed a ritual of dressing in purchased military uniforms with medals and emblems as a protest against inattention and erasure as well as validation of their identities and life experiences. Her, whose family belongs to the same immigrant community, sought out the veterans and offered her photographic services: if they sat for a portrait, she would make one for them in exchange for one for her. Taken between 2012 and 2014 at various Hmong American community venues or private homes in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the photographs borrow the tropes of nineteenth-century portraits of American generals and Civil War soldiers, and official presidential portraits. Placed in gilded frames selected by the artist, the pictures of the men in dignified postures seek to restore history and pay tribute; the absence of their names highlights their current anonymous standing with the U.S. Army. Through the practices of performance and portraiture, Her’s work explores the consequences of patriotism, displacement, and longing.