In 2010, Richard Mosse traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo. While he was there he extensively photographed the people of the North Kivu province of Eastern Congo – the deadliest place on Earth, especially for women. Unlike other war photographers, Mosse paints the stories of rebel soldiers with a different stroke. To create what he feels is a more compelling narrative, he uses Kodak Aerochrome film to create a series of photographs that he calls “Infra”. The film manipulates green images into a vibrant purple hue. Mosse describes his process:
These are all subjects that are very difficult to express with traditional documentary realism; they are difficult to perceive in their own right. Very often I am fighting simply to represent the subject, just to find a way to put it before the lens, or make it visible by its very absence. This process is inherently ‘Romantic’ because it often requires a retreat into my own imagination, into my own symbolic order.
The Jack Shainman Gallery adds:
Infra offers a radical rethinking of how to depict a conflict as complex and intractable as that of the ongoing war in the Congo. The results offer a fevered inflation of the traditional reportage document, underlining the tension between art, fiction, and photojournalism. Infra initiates a dialogue with photography that begins as an intoxicating meditation on a broken documentary genre, but ends as a haunting elegy for a vividly beautiful land touched by unspeakable tragedy.
The result of this unique photography is nothing short of captivating. You can view all of his work here.
(Photo credit: Richard Mosse)
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