The photographer Richard Mosse was born in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1980. He studied fine art at Goldsmiths and earned an MFA in photography from Yale. Conflict looms large in his work: he made his name with a series of pictures from the war in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, made striking by his use of infrared film to produce landscapes of shocking pink. He won the Deutsche Börse prize in 2014 and the Prix Pictet in 2017 for his video installation Incoming, about the migrant crisis in Europe. Lately, he’s been documenting the destruction of lives and ecosystems in the Amazon. Mosse is one of 15 artists taking part in Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis at the Hayward Gallery, London, from 21 June to 3 September.
1. Film
Killer of Sheep (dir Charles Burnett, 1978)
This is a marvellous film, probably the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. It was made on a shoestring and shot in black and white on 16mm. It helped me feel inspired to go out and make a film too. It’s about this slaughterhouse worker who’s trying his best, but society has shat on him and he’s exhausted. It’s about his life, his struggle and also the love of his wife, which he can’t seem to receive. The shots of kids playing are really special and tender. Rewatching it the other day, I noticed the use of the long lens is particularly skilful and virtuosic.
2. Book
Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures by Mark Fisher
I’ve just begun reading this. It’s my first encounter with Mark Fisher, but I’m really interested in his thoughts on hauntology – about the ghosts of modernity and the utopic desires that we see all around us. I’m also trying to figure out the potential of the psychedelic, which crops up in my own work. The book is made up of Fisher’s lectures at Goldsmiths before he died in 2017. (I studied at Goldsmiths but didn’t encounter him. I wish I had.) It’s a depressing read, but I’m hoping it will help me think through my own work and lead me to new ideas.
3. Documentary
The Territory (dir Alex Pritz, 2022)
This film about the Amazon was being made around the same time as mine [Broken Spectre], though the two turned out to be extremely different. Pritz was focused on the state of Rondônia in Brazil, particularly in the south where the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people are, and it documents their struggles as the forest is being cleared to create vast monocultural plantations. Pritz was making the documentary when the pandemic hit, and he ended up giving the cameras to his subjects to continue shooting. It’s an amazing film.
4. Photobook
Dialect by Felipe Romero Beltrán
I’m not familiar with Beltrán’s work, but this book feels very close to my heart, insofar as it’s about refugees. The artist has collaborated with nine Moroccan migrants in Seville to produce some extraordinary photographs. As an artist or storyteller, trying to dig into the plight of refugees is a tough one. It’s such an incendiary subject, and it’s hard to find new ways to do it. This takes a performative approach. The images are very spare. The idea of collaborating with the subjects is fruitful, and I think Beltrán does it really well.
5. Place
Lough Avalla Farm looped walk in County Clare, Ireland
Every time I come to the Burren, I walk this loop through Lough Avalla farm. It is absolutely gorgeous, and it’s constantly changing, with a lot of little turns through scrub, with wild goats and long-haired cows. The farmer, Harry Jeuken, has a little tea house where you can pop in and he’ll make you tea and cake, which he gives away for free. I’m intrigued by his ideas. He believes that there’s an energy in outer space that is channelled through these aerial-like rocks he’s put up around the farm. He does it to fatten up the goats. There’s something very special about this walk.
6. Art
An-My Lê: Between Two Rivers at MoMA, New York
An-My Lê is a real inspiration to me. I’ve followed her work for decades, so it’s exciting that she’s having a retrospective at MoMA this November [5 November-9 March]. She was born in Vietnam and fled to the US with her family as a child, so she has a very specific and extraordinary view on the world. A lot of her work is about the US war machine in its various forms. She did a terrific series about statues of civil war generals and another looking at Vietnam war re-enactors. She’s an incredible photographer.
