MK GALLERY REVEALS NEW EXHIBITION TO COINCIDE WITH WWI CENTENARY

Milton Keynes Gallery presents the first major show in the UK by Vietnamese American photographer An-My Lê this week, and  the show has been purposely timed to coincide with the centenary of the First World War. An-My was born in Vietnam in 1960, and fled Saigon with her family as a teenager in 1975 - during the final days of the war, she was airlifted to safety, eventually settling in the US as a political refugee. She eventually graduated from Yale University, where she had studied photography. An-My Lê is now widely recognised as one of the most significant photographers working in the world today, and her work has been shown widely in American with major exhibitions to her name. Among the deliveries heading to MK Gallery, An-My will show Events Ashore, which is 10 years in the making. The artist joined with the American armed forces to travel vast oceans with them.  Through her visions, the viewer will be able to explore the military's expanded global operations and the consequences of war, during moments away from the combat. With camera in hand, she has been allowed unprecedented access to the American military - including in the 29 Palms marine base in the Californian desert, just after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Her thought-provoking show launches with the preview on Thursday evening (September 18) and then shows until November 23. Admission is free. For more event information, head to www.mkgallery.org