Richard Mosse

Lac Vert, South Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 50 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Villagers wash clothes and children swim in a lake formed in the crater of an extinct volcano, several miles west of Goma. This lake is allegedly the site where bodies of Mobutu’s political opponents were dumped after execution.

Lost Fun Zone, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 72 x 90 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Kanyaruchinya IDP camp, North Kivu, was home to at least sixty thousand people who had fled south from Rutshuru Territory to escape M23 rebels. This photograph was taken in late October 2012. Only a couple of weeks later, Kanyaruchinya’s population would be forced to flee again, abandoning the camp in great haste.

Madonna and Child, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 35 x 28 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse FARDC soldier holding his baby girl, on the road between Fizi and the Haut Plateau region of South Kivu. This road is the active front line between Mai Mai Yakutumba and the FRF (Federalist Republican Forces).

Man-Size, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2011, digital C print, 72 x 90 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Young fighters from the APCLS (Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo) posing in the undergrowth, Lukweti, Masisi Territory, North Kivu.

Of Lillies and Remains, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, 72 x 90 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Skull of a victim of the massacre carried out by the FDLR in Busurungi in 2009. The skull was secretly taken to Chambucha at the request of surviving relatives, so that it could be documented without reprisal on the villagers of Busurungi by FDLR. The skull was placed by the photographer in wet grass near a riverbank and dressed with cut flowers, a memento mori.

Poison Glen, South Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 50 x 80 inches, Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Mountain formations near Bunyakiri, South Kivu, in a landscape populated by FDLR rebels and their dependents. Shortly after this photograph was taken, in early March 2012, armed men from Raiya Mutomboki massacred 32 unarmed civilians, mainly Hutus, in Bunyakiri. The FDLR carried out reprisal massacres in May of the same year, killing 51 unarmed civilians in nearby villages. These tit-for-tat massacres have led to a series of reprisal massacres, the largest of which saw a death toll of 242 unarmed civilians. The violence has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, who have fled violence and take refuge in squalid conditions within sprawling camps that lack adequate sanitation.

Safe From Harm, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 48 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Member of Mai Mai Yakutumba posing in a camouflage headdress made from foliage, near Fizi on Lake Tanganyika, South Kivu.

Suspicious Minds, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 48 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Three M23 rebels under Colonel Innocent Kaina (aka “India Queen”) standing at the deserted Kanyaruchinya IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camp, which they had recently seized from FARDC control. The next day these rebels—a force of less than fifteen hundred—pushed onward for Goma, where they were victorious against FARDC troops and their UN support, which included Indian helicopter gunships. Witnesses say that Rwandan army troops came across the border to assist the M23, which is widely viewed as a Rwandan proxy force operating in Congo.

Tombstone Blues, North Kivu, eastern Congo, 2012, digital C print, 48 x 60 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery. © Richard Mosse Kanyaruchinya IDP camp, some ten miles north of Goma, was home to at least sixty thousand refugees, displaced by the M23 from their homes further north, in Rutshuru Territory. When M23 forces pushed south to take control of Goma, this camp was abruptly abandoned. Fleeing inhabitants stripped the makeshift huts of all their belongings, including the tarpaulin roofs. Many headed for Mugunga IDP camp, just west of Goma. Tragically, the front line quickly followed them only a few days later, and they were forced to flee once again.