Richard Mosse’s Broken Spectre at Photo Elysée
Richard Mosse, still from Broken Spectre, Roraima, Multispectral GIS aerial © Richard Mosse
Written by Cate Engles
Photo edited by Max Amos-Flom
The stills of Broken Spectre make it impossible to look away from the issue at present. The world is on fire, and we cannot help but stare at this realization. Richard Mosse draws his viewer’s eyes to his vibrant images of the Amazon Rainforest in his exhibit at Photo Elysée in Lausanne which will be open until February 2024. Previously on view at the Tate Modern and the National Gallery of Victoria, Broken Spectre engulfs its viewer with its 19-meter screen that projects Mosse’s dystopian images of what was once a verdant land.
Richard Mosse, still from Broken Spectre, Rondônia, Multispectral GIS aerial © Richard Mosse
Mosse allows his viewer to see the effect of climate change on all scales. He uses aerial footage to capture the breadth of organisms that are victims of human overconsumption and negligence of care. From above, the viewer can see the increasing deforestation that Mosse emphasizes through his use of saturated complementary colors. In his multispectral aerial images, he inverts the colors of the landscape, and the once lush land becomes a scarce tundra. The only plants that remain are burning.
Richard Mosse, still from Broken Spectre, Roraima, Multispectral GIS aerial © Richard Mosse
The technique of visual juxtaposition is used throughout the exhibit to demonstrate the relationship between the human experience and the environment. In between the bright bird’s-eye-view images, he inserts close-ups of microscopic creatures that he illuminates using UV lamps. He also switches between colored perspectives to ones of black-and-white on his carousel of images. One black-and-white photograph depicts a cluster of cattle. Edge to edge, cows are pictured, photographed just over their heads. There is a feeling of claustrophobia and fear created from this still: how are these cattle being fed? Are there enough resources for all of them? Mosse furthers the urgency of these questions when he zooms out from this bunch and the viewer can see exactly where the cows are: floating on a raft in the middle of the Amazon River.
Richard Mosse, still from of Broken Spectre, cattle, Amazonas © Richard Mosse
Mosse presented this project in a book form in 2022 – which Musée covered – but this new sensationalist exhibition allows the viewers to insert themselves into the Brazilian Amazon physically. The noises Mosse picked up while filming are included as well as the natural movement of animals and humans alike. The constant movement and rotation of images reminds the viewer that deforestation and global warming are continuously progressing. The viewers are not able to remove themselves from this realization.
Richard Mosse, still from Broken Spectre, Rondônia, Multispectral GIS aerial © Richard Mosse
Broken Spectre forces the viewer to come to terms with the reality of the planet. The earth is heating up. There are too many mouths to feed and not enough resources. The fiery oranges, reds, and pinks that Mosse draws from his footage place the viewer in a feverish dream that is really not a dream at all—it is the present world. Although many viewers at Photo Elysée have likely not visited Brazil and the rain forest there, Mosse brings it to them. He takes this issue out of the hands of his viewers and makes them feel this fear first-hand in his experiential installation.
Richard Mosse, still from Broken Spectre, Roraima, Spectre, ultraviolet © Richard Mosse
