RICHARD MOSSE
Richard Mosse’s photography captures the beauty and tragedy in war and destruction. Mosse has shot abandoned plane wrecks in the furthest reaches of the planet and the former palaces of Uday and Saddam Hussein now occupied by US military forces. His most recent series, Infra captures the ongoing war between rebel factions and the Congolese national army in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Infra series is marked by Mosse’s use of Kodak Aerochrome, a discontinued reconnaissance infrared film. The film registers chlorophyll in live vegetation. The result is the lush Congolese rainforest rendered into a beautifully surreal landscape of pinks and reds. Mosse said in an interview with The British Journal of Photography "I wanted to export this technology to a harder situation, to up-end the generic conventions of calcified mass-media narratives and challenge the way we're allowed to represent this forgotten conflict… I wanted to confront this military reconnaissance technology, to use it reflexively in order to question the ways in which war photography is constructed."
Mosse is the winner of the 2014 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. In 2013, Mosse represented Ireland in the Venice Biennale with the The Enclave an immersive six-channel video installation that utilized 16mm infrared film. The piece is an attempt, as Mosse explains on CNN.com, to bring “two counter-worlds into collision: art’s potential to represent narratives so painful that they exist beyond language, and photography’s capacity to document specific tragedies and communicate them to the world.”
Mosse was born in 1980 in Ireland and is based in New York. He earned an MFA in Photography from Yale School of Art in 2008 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, London in 2005. Mosse has exhibited work at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami; the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; the Dublin Contemporary Biennial; FotoMuseum Antwerp (FoMu); FOAM, Amsterdam; and the Tate Modern, London. Current and upcoming solo exhibitions include The Enclave, Portland Museum of Art, November 8, 2014 – February 8, 2015; The Enclave, DHC/ART, Montreal, October 16, 2014 – February 8, 2015; and Richard Mosse: The Enclave, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, February 6 – May 25, 2015.
Mosse's work is part of many public collections including the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, the Martin Margulies Collection, Miami, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, the Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro, and the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. Mosse’s first monograph, Infra, was published by Aperture Foundation and Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting in 2011. His most recent monograph, The Enclave, was also published by Aperture Foundation in 2013 to accompany his presentation at the Venice Biennale.
Jack Shainman Gallery has represented Richard Mosse since 2008. He had his first solo exhibition, Airside, that same year. Subsequent solo exhibitions include The Fall (2009), Infra (2011) and The Enclave (2014).
What genres does Richard Mosse's 'The Enclave fit ' into ?
Richard fits into the Documentary genre
What is the history that relates to this project ?
The history is the ongoing fighting of the Hutus and the Tutsi tribes. . An ongoing Genecide and mass Exodus
Is there anything in his own history that influences this work.
He was born in Ireland and lived as a Quaker he had a very peaceful life and at the age of 20 left for Berlin where he worked . He later decided to leave for Bosnia which was a war torn country, even though it was 6/7 years after the war he found himself deeply absorbed in this and took photographs of this place which helped him form his life passion.
Why did he choose to use the Kodak infared film for the project ?
He chose this because he wanted to do documentary photography and by using infared was an unusual way with the pinks and reds to get his view across to the people . By using the infrared it reflected off the healthy plants to reveal the the dead or dying a camouflage detection . Infer red lighting is military surveillance film now discontinued . The purpose is to reveal , make visible. He was trying to make visible this conflict. If you make something beautiful people feel something they sit up and listen , if you represent war in a beautiful way the viewer gets angry , confused and they think about the image.
How does the use of this film fit into the documentary genre ?
He was documenting a genicide of the Tutsi by the Hutus and then the Hutus mass exodus.
How many times has he been to
the Eastern Congo for this project ?
He had never been to the Congo but he had heard 5.4 million people had been killed by war related crimes since 1998 but we don't really hear about this disaster, this ongoing war and he wanted this hidden , unseen conflict to be revealed.
He has travelled 8 times to the Congo over 4 years.
Why do you think he has been back so many times.
I think he has been back so many times because its an ongoing war in the Congo . Theres so much suffering , a lack of trace. He is drawn there because he wants people to take note. He likes the place, the people are constantly moving with the landscapes , there are at least 20 armed groups always fighting and many of them are nomadic people. Theres so little infrastructure and he's intrigued by the lack of roads and mud trails the lack of communication.
What justification does he have for creating such beautiful images to represent such horrific events.
He wants the public to take note to open their eyes to war and conflict but in a way by presenting his photos with difference to create this huge talking point. He struggles with the unseen war, He was trying to make this war visible to make it more visible to reveal this conflict. He wanted the viewer to feel it and by using these colours he achieved that. He used a 16 mm motion picture film which he wanted to be true to his experience. The nature of the wars are hard to understand and he wanted the audience to feel the fear and emerge themselves in this environment .
Why would he be criticised for this ?
Because war is horrible , sad , unthinkable crimes happen its awful from all the suffering and his beautiful colours don't portray that until you actually sit down and lesson to his reasons and study the pictures .
In his images you wouldn't think there was such horrific events unfolding between the landscape and the rivers he has shown. I feel some critics would suggest he's trying to make war a pretty event ? Not sure just my thoughts.
How does this differ from other war photographs I have seen ?
This is very different work from the normal war photographers images that I have seen. Of course for me the most noticeable is the pretty colours in these images. There is so much destructiction and unspeakable violence going on and then in the middle of it all are these beautiful pink photographs . The images I saw of Richards showed no actual death or blood and guts but showed you the brutal leftovers of war so to speak. I only saw soldiers with guns with the landscapes as their backgrounds , burnt areas and trees leaving our imaginations to run its course.
Most war images I have seen are black and white , gruesome and full of death and destruction. There was no room for wondering you were presented with the brutality , death and wreckage no holds barred. A pile of dead bodies you understood this is war but with the pink photos you don't see dead bodies you saw beautiful landscapes and a river running through it.
With his photos of the soldiers the colour pink almost calmed the event down the men didn't look so angry and violent .
I understood him and his reasons much easier after I listened to his talk in this interview. I have learnt from my photography course not to judging people and their work until I have heard or read about them. Knowledge is power and understanding .
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