Digital Technology 2: Week 3: Richard Mosse

Digital Technology 2

Week 3

Richard Mosse

'The Enclave'

Information

Richard Mosse is a Irish Photographer Born in 1980. Mosse lives and works in New York and Berlin.

He received a BA in English Literature from Kings Collage in London in 2001, an MRes in cultural studies from the London Consortium in 2003, a Postgrade diploma in fine art from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2005, and a Photography MFA from Yale School of art, in 2008.

In 2011, he won the Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and in 2014 the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. 

In June 2015, Mosse became a nominee member of Magnum Photo's. 

What Genre/Genre's does Richard Mosse's 'The Enclave' fit into?

I feel this work fits into Documentary Portraiture/Life/War/Documentary/and Fine Art Genre's

What is the history that relates to this Project?

Richard Stated in his online extended interview, that this project is based in eastern Congo which is on the boarder of Rwandan and Uganda, and is centered around the Rwanda Genocide that happened in the mid 90's (I think the exact year was 1994 after doing a bit more research). The Tribe that committed the genocide, the Hutu's, fled along with their Wive's, Children, Politicians, and pretty much everyone in their tribe, kinda as a mass exodus west into Congo. The Rebel group kinda destabilized Western Congo and in doing so created a kinda power Vacuum. 

His work in this specific project captures the ongoing war between the rebel factions and the Congo National Army. 

Is there anything in Richards own history that influences his Work?

Richard grew up in a peaceful town in Ireland Called Bennettsbridge, but as a kid would hear stories about up north with the war between the Catholics and Prodostins, and he stated that, that has an effect on your identity. Richard also stated that he came from a Quaker family, which is a minority in Ireland, and as such respects his roots and what Quakerism stands for, and one of the most important things it stands for is "Pacifism", which was a sort of motivation for Richard and lead to him traveling to countries like Bosnia in his early 20's.

Why did he choose to use the Kodak Infared film for the Project?

Richard has stated that the film he used for this project is a Military Surveillance Film which is used as a way to perceive camouflage and helps make the invisible visible. So his purpose in using it was to try and make visible this very overlooked conflict that he was filming in, and in a way make it more visible. Richard choose specifically not to photograph the goriness of the situation around him so I guess he also used the Red/Pinks in the Military Surveillance Film to show what he wasn't showing in the Photographs. A lot of the Photographs he took were of Beautiful scenery and solders. So I guess he was trying to use the pinks and reds to show what was going on behind the beauty of the landscapes and the images of the solders. 

How does the use of this film fit into the documentary Genre?

Because the Army use it to find people and it's an uncommon choice of Film.  

How many times has he been to Eastern Cargo and why do you think he's been back so many times for this Project?

Richard's extremely invested in his project as most Photographers are, and has traveled to Eastern Congo 8 times in 4 years to capture different stages of the war and conflicts going on in the Country.

What Justification does he have for creating such Beautiful images to represent such horrific events??

Richard has stated that he did come across a mass murder while Photographing in Western Congo and decided not to film it because he felt it would be to graphic for the viewer, and believes that if you can over turn that and see the beauty in the Photographs you can attract the viewer to an image and put the viewer into a very problematic state where they really have to think about the fact that, hey this image is beautiful but it has a really dark story happening in the background and really make them think about the image.

To me I feel he's taken theses images to show people that even though there's war and pain and suffering going on in these places, if you look beyond that there's still beauty and that's something I feel a lot of war and documentary photographers don't capture. 

Why would he be criticized for this?

I guess he could be criticized cause some people could see his images as beautifying war and I guess even the way he portrays the solders in these images could also be criticized by the way they're posing and Photographed. 

How does Richards work differ from other war Photographers you've seen?

I guess Richards work for me differs in the fact that it doesn't necessarily look like war Photography. Most other war Photography I've seen has shown solders fighting and that pain and suffering going on inside the war and the fighting. Which is why I tend to stay away from looking at war photography myself , I just tend to find it to graphic and I'm quite a sensitive person if I see someone crying I'll start crying even if I don't know the person or what they've been through or if I see pain or violence or anything like that I can just feel how they must be feeling and it really gets to me, especially if I can't do anything to help them. Which is why I also tend to stay away from watching the news cause that get's me crying too. So I guess in a way an instant difference I saw was that I could look at these images knowing they're war images, and knowing the backstory of them BUT I guess not have the emotional side of it really up in your face like a lot of other war Photographers have in their images.