somnolent deluxe

INFRA; examines the conflict in Eastern Congo using Kodak Aerochrome, a recently discontinued film that was originally developed for military reconnaissance. These extraordinary colors are not the result of Photoshop.

The project seeks a new strategy to represent Congo’s intangible conflict. Mosse chose to use this infrared aerial surveillance film out of context in order to explore how photography represents a place like Congo, a place deeply buried beneath its past cultural representations, from Heart of Darkness to Tin Tin.

Infrared light is invisible to the human eye, and so the work alludes metaphorically to the conflict’s lack of visibility in our global consciousness, as well as (paradoxically) this endless war’s over-saturation in the mass media.
Color infrared film portrays the world in a pink palette which the photographer uses to subvert the ways in which Congo and the African continent are traditionally photographed. He deliberately wishes to break the generic rules in order to question how we see (or don’t see) this war.