These two large-scale photographs belong to a photographic series that explores the relationship between landscape, trauma, and memory. The North Central Coast region of Quang Tri, where this image was shot, was one of the most heavily bombed areas in modern history, and its residents have for generations lived with the physical residue and lingering trauma of war. These images document the disposal of a 15 in. 50 caliber artillery shell shot from a US Naval ship during the Vietnam War that failed to detonate upon impact. Landmine and UXO pollution has especially affected rural populations, leaving a dramatic trail of fatalities and amputated limbs, and those populations must be liberated from the threat of death that lies beneath the surface.

The compositions of these works draw upon the classical art historical traditions of landscape painting, juxtaposing the lush foliage of a jungle landscape with the jarring intrusion of an object of war, and the human struggle that surrounds it. In depicting the recovery and removal of this UXO, Nguyen draws our attention to the ways in which a landscape can retain the history of the traumas enacted upon it–and the ways in which it can be born anew.