Dissertation: Beyond Representation? Colour, affect and the aestheticisation of conflict in Richard Mosse’s images of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Dissertation Abstract.
Title:
Beyond Representation? Colour, affect and the aestheticisation of conflict in Richard Mosse’s images of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"This dissertation aims to analyse the use of surreal colour in the documentary/conceptual photographic series Infra (2010-11) and film The Enclave (2012-2013) by the Irish photographer Richard Mosse. The works analysed here present the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in particular the region of the North and South Kivus, and are presented by Mosse through the effect of Kodak Aerochrome film; the film, which absorbs infrared light from vegetation that the human eye cannot see, has given his work on the DRC a hot colour palette aesthetic, presenting the conflict as surreal and at times beautiful.
However, the use of heightened colour poses moral questions in the realm of documentary representations, which this dissertation will explore. Can depicting a serious and complex conflict in an unrealistic manner trivialise the experiences of the people in the DRC? This argument will be looking at issues of the ‘exotic’, as well as the commercial success of this series and film in relation to globalisation, which will consider the problematic nature of surreal, ‘tropical’ colour in depicting Africa and looking at the images from a post-colonial reading.
Although the use of colour can be seen to reinforce problematic stereotypes, Mosse claims that his use of surreal colour is an attempt to shine a light on a conflict which has been largely forgotten by Western media. He sees the pinks, reds and bright blues brought about by the Kodak Aerochrome film as a way to push the boundaries of objective representation in a bid to understand the complex conflict of the DRC. To explore this claim, a reading of affect will be used to see whether the use of Kodak Areochrome film can be used to bring the spectator closer to the subject matter, rather than distancing them further through the issue of the exotic."
This dissertation was awarded a first.