Fantasy and Fabrication Through a Hmong American Lens

In 2012, artist Pao Houa Her observed a group of Hmong men perform a military honors ceremony at her uncle’s funeral. She learned that they had taught themselves taps and the ritual folding of the American flag through YouTube videos; they purchased their uniforms and regalia online and in military-surplus shops. These men, like Her’s uncle and father, had fought in the Secret War of the 1960s and early 1970s, in which the CIA covertly recruited and trained the Hmong ethnic minority living in Laos to fight Communist forces. But they and their families were later denied benefits and formal recognition by the United States government.

As a gesture of remembrance and respect, Her photographed these veterans in the style of formal military portraits for her earliest series, Attention (2012–