Richard Mosse. (DT2 WK3)

Watch the interview and answer the questions:

1) What genre/s does Richard Mosse's 'The Enclave' fit into?
- Documentary photography.
-Fine Art.
-War.

2) What is the history that relates to this project?
-Conflict in the Congo. The feeling of displacement which was one he was familiar with.

3) Is there anything in his own history that influences his work?
-He grew up around the conflict in northern Ireland.
-This was not his first time photographing and dealing with war.
-His own lack of advancement in other fields of photography spurred the move.

4) Why did he choose to use Kodak infared film for the project?
-It was military made film, used in areas such as the one he was in. The film was designed to reveal what was hidden, which is the reasoning behind the drastic colour change.

5) How does the use of this film fit into the documentary genre?
-Generally, it wouldn't, but because of the way he used and portrayed his photographs it still counts as documentary based. It would be easy -without knowing anything about his works- to just say that it was Photoshopped, but because of the way the figures and surroundings are portrayed it still fits into that category. The figures are cold and distant, there is no real interaction between the figures in the photo.

6) How many times has he been to the Eastern Congo for this project? Why do you think he has been back so many times?
-8 time in 4 years.
-His justification for returning so many times was that everything kept changing. The land and the people, they were constantly shifting.

7) What justification does he have for creating such beautiful images to represent such horrific events? Why would he be criticized for this? How does this differ from other war photographs?
-General war images are graphic and made to shock. He wanted to make photographs that were aesthetically pleasing to the viewer. He wanted to create a conflict of emotion within the viewers, to stretch and make them realise their own ethical standards. In making his images as beautiful as they were, he opened up the viewers self awareness, the viewer was meant to have conflicting emotions over the image, while their eyes liked it, their mind told them they shouldn't.