The Great An Le Written by – Anthony O’Baner
A
n Le is a name that you might have seen in a couple of your favorite magazines. His portfolio includes publications like British GQ , Numéro Russia, Vogue Taiwan (and Portugal, and Spain, and Ukraine), W Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam, and the list goes on. Needless to say, the photographer and SCAD alumnus is well on his way to photo-giant status next to Juergen Teller and Mert & Alas.
usually got overlooked.” His parents rightfully supported his aspirations towards a creative career and 15-year-old Le was on his way from Ho Chi Minh City to the States.
After some years of boarding school in Maine and completing his high school education in California, Le came back to the east coast to begin his study in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). But before his success, the It was at the university now-New Yorker left his that Le honed his photognative country of Vietnam raphy style and developed at 15-years-old to pursue the professional skills that his dream as an artist in have proven to pay off. the United States, alone. He suddenly knew that “People didn’t really apfashion photography was preciate artistic careers [in the career for him after Vietnam],” Le says. “Most something clicked during art and creative classes his sophomore year. “I 22
started to collaborated a lot with my fashion, jewelry, and theatre production friends and I always had a lot of fun,” he recalls. Most of his fashion-related work was exciting, personal projects he assigned himself. Figuring out how to get the best quality shots with technically zero budget, Le utilized every resource that the SCAD photography department had to offer.
tition, sponsored by American Vogue and Bottega Venetta with RED Camera. And he won. He unquestionably believes it is the most memorable project that he has worked on so far in his photo career. From facing countless challenges with booking models in Vietnam to almost having to pay around three thousand dollars to rent the
“I treated all my school projects as if they were real assignments from a real work place. That helped me have a sense of responsibility that goes beyond getting good grades.” Just a month before he graduated, Le submitted a project called, The Sea for the New Exposure compe-
camera that was required to be used in the contest, Le was close to giving up. “It was a surreal mo-