Infra
Subtitle: photographs
By: by Richard Mosse ; with an essay by Adam Hochschild
Contributors: Hochschild, Adam
Edition: 1st trade ed.
Publisher: Aperture Foundation; Available in North America through D.A.P.
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York, N.Y
Language: eng
Number of pages: 135
ISBN-13: 9781597112024
Subjects: War and society; Artistic Photography; Photojournalism; Infrared photography; Pictorial works
Description: "Infra, Richard Mosse's first book, offers a radical rethinking of how to depict a conflict as complex and intractable as the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mosse depicts the rich topography, inscribed with the traces of conflicting interests, as well as rebel groups of constantly shifting allegiances at war with the Congolese national army (itself a patchwork of recently integrated warlords and their militias). For centuries, the Congo has repeatedly compelled and defied the Western imagination. Mosse brings to this subject the use of a type of color infrared film called Kodak Aerochrome. Originally developed for military reconnaissance and now discontinued, it registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, rendering the green landscape in vivid hues of lavender, crimson, and hot pink. The results offer a fevered inflation of traditional reportage, underlining the growing tension between art, fiction, and photojournalism. Mosse's work highlights the ineffable nature of current events in today's Congo. Infra's photographic dialogue begins as an intoxicating meditation on a broken genre, but ends as a haunting elegy for a vividly beautiful land touched by unspeakable tragedy."--Publisher's website.