(Whoops! Forgot To Post This!) Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image - Response

Quote:

“They had a very interesting reaction to the camera who was very ambivalent, and they didn't want to be photographed and they made it very clear.  So, it was this aggressive, sort of, face off with the camera - not with you but the lens.  But at the same time they were posing, the rebels became very gestural and performative, very expressive, in their poses. (…) The subject in the photograph is reminding the viewer of the authors presence” (Mosse).

Response:

I thought that the reactions to the camera was a very important point to bring up in the process of filming for The Enclave.  I found Mosse’s words were very thoughtful in the way that he described the camera as being this foreign device that perhaps frightened the people at first and made them apprehensive.  I couldn’t imagine how the people of the DRC (The Rebels) would feel, seeing these people coming in to “help” them, yet they are all just getting filmed.  It is interesting though that they were intensely mad at the camera and not the cameraman themselves.  When they stared straight into the lens, it seemed to me that they may have indeed been looking at the cameraman, which ultimately made the images much more powerful to me.  I also find it interesting that the idea of the camera switched as they were filming, and as Mosse said, they began posing and exemplifying their movements for a better gesture.  It is almost as if they understood quite quickly what they were doing and followed suit in their actions.

Mosse’s words on the subjects in his photographs (and all photographs for that matter) having reflexive properties, reminding the viewer of the photographers presence was incredibly striking to me.  When the subject/person is staring straight into the lens, or “posing” for the camera, they are a part of a moment that is intrinsic to the people themselves, photographer, and viewer.  It is a chain of events that creates what the final image will be and how it is read.  

Questions:

1. Is there a set point where the progression of the video begins, or is it meant to be purely ambiguous, or up to the viewer?
2. Are the contrasting images of suffering and beauty meant to strike people as a means of life and death?  Can it have multiple meanings depending on the scope of one’s perception?
3. Does the presence of multiple screens parallel the fact that Richard Mosse is trying to envelop us into the world he was in and experienced?  How close can we get to the experience when we are looking just through the lens, or screen?

Christy Lang, “Richard Mosse: The Impossible Image.” Vimeo Video, 7:21 posted by

Frieze Film 2014