Work in Progress (Unit 3

This is a picture of a corpse strewn battlefield in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. This picture shows the harsh realities of war, especially a war as violent as the one in the Congo. Richard Mosse attempts to capture this war in a new light. Although an image like this will never be attractive or nice to look at, Richard Mosse’s goal is to make people look at the war in a different way and provide much needed attention towards the war so that pictures like this must not be recreated again and again.

This picture shows the child soldiers of the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An estimated 30,000 child soldiers are currently/have partaken in the war. This is another thing Richard Mosse seeks to illuminate through his pictures of the war in the Congo. These children are usually forced to join the militaries against their free will and there aren’t any concrete laws to hinder these kinds of things as of right now. These are young children, often times under the age of 13 as can be seen in the picture who are trained to kill and hurt for causes they cannot understand. Richard Mosse’s pictures portray these kids with a type of youthful innocence that should be present, and not as soldiers or killers.

This picture shows Richard Mosse in the Congo taking photographs of the seemingly beautiful landscape. Mosse says “his ultimate goal is to capture beauty in the midst of all the devastation...Often, if you make something that’s derived from human suffering or from war … if you represent that with beauty, and sometimes it is beautiful, that creates an ethical problem in the viewer’s mind.” If you were to look at this picture, and the war in the Congo as a whole, without any alterations you would not notice anything but the destruction and ravishment of the environment. Richard Mosse does not see it this way and by creating pictures that reflect his point of view he brings to light the need for change and recovery.

This picture simply shows off the beauty provided by the Kodak Aerochrome film; the film used by Richard Mosse to create his breath taking photographs. As in this picture, Kodak Aerochrome allows scenes of simple scenery to be transformed into something beautiful and thought provoking. The film brings out colors that the human eye cannot capture normally and the results are breathtaking. Richard Mosse uses this film to show the hidden beauty behind the war and landscape of the Congo.

This a visual from The Enclave, Richard Mosse’s most widely known work. The dark surrounding and vast screens provide a feeling of immersion and give the viewer the feeling of having a first hand account of being there. The Enclave features Mosse’s work in the Congo, particularly dealing with the war and the landscapes affected by the war. His pictures instill deep thought and force the viewer to look at something heinous in a completely new, introspective manner.