Photographing war zones with LF

[olwick]

That's hard core:
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/19/2663622/photographer-richard-mosse-sees.html

[Bob Kerner]

Interesting. He's 30 and has quite an impressive resume on his website. Is it me, or are more "young" people taking LF cameras into the world and using them in photojournalistic applications?

This story reminds me a little of Simon Roberts' "We English" project where he used 4x5 to document UK culture. Maybe I'm just more LF literate as a result of this forum but I wouldn't have thought to use my 4x5 to record people on the street-much less a war zone- and wasn't aware of anyone doing it, 15 yrs ago when I first dabbled in LF. Now it doesn't seem that unusual.

Thanks for posting this.

[Brian C. Miller]

Is Richard Mosse (http://www.richardmosse.com/) using an 8x10?? That certaintly is no 4x5. He must be schlepping around as much gear as the soldiers.

[arca andy]

Check out Simon Norfolk, I think a lot of his Afgan photos are on LF www.simonnorfolk.com/

[Brian C. Miller]

Just got this from Richard Mosse:

Thanks Brian!
Yes it's an 8x10, you're totally right. Just making my way back to NYC after a hard core month in the jungles of eastern Congo with the same 8x10. (a Phillips explorer.) unfortunately the ground glass broke on the last day, but got tons of great images of rebels living in the bush with their RPG launchers and not much else. Poor fellas.
Thanks for your thumbs up.
Richard

[jp]

Interesting. He's 30 and has quite an impressive resume on his website. Is it me, or are more "young" people taking LF cameras into the world and using them in photojournalistic applications?


For a talented young photographer, digital isn't that challenging anymore (not denying it's usefulness though). I suspect good photographers involved in journalism get perturbed to say the least when great photography doesn't take an important role in telling a story in the news anymore, due to budget cuts, arming writers with P&S cameras, layout priorities that promote thinning page count or increasing ads, etc... So fine art is an outlet.

[Scott Walker]

Cool

[Cornelius]

I'd love to know where to get some of that 8x10 infrared color film. That stuff has an incredible look to it.

[Brian C. Miller]

The color IR film is 35mm, from Kodak, long ago. The HIE B&W was available in 4x5.

There is Efke 8x10 IR available on eBay.

[engl]

From the articles, it seems he is not using LF for infrared, but rather Kodak Aerochrome in 120 format.

[John NYC]

That is awesome stuff!

[36cm2]

Very cool stuff. Thanks for the post. That aerochrome is crazy. I felt a bit foolish for asking myself, "wow, how do those military guys hide from the enemy if they're all wearing bright red uniforms...?"

[Sascha Welter]

Very cool stuff. Thanks for the post. That aerochrome is crazy. I felt a bit foolish for asking myself, "wow, how do those military guys hide from the enemy if they're all wearing bright red uniforms...?"

... which is exactly the point of using infrared films for military reconnaissance. It reveals camouflage paint. Probably it went round and around and there are "ir-safe" camouflage paints and dies too.

[Brian C. Miller]

Actually, no, there aren't paints which will disperse IR. The closest that any paint came to that was green paint which had the reflective properties of white paint. Naturally, we were ordered to paint over this paint with dark cammo. It was the Army. Go figure...

[David de Gruyl]

So that's the origin of those horrible purple-magenta "camouflage" (the ones that exist in real life, not in film).

[Brian C. Miller]

You mean the psychedelic camoflage? No, that's a civilian thing. Nobody bothers to cammoflage for IR like that. If somebody wore that on the battelfield, you wouldn't need anything special to see them, because they'd stick out like, well, purple people!

The only time that IR is used is when reconaisance is done, usually by aircraft. When troops are on the ground, IR equipment is rare.

[David de Gruyl]

Sorry, Brian, I meant it to be a joke. Clearly purple is not camouflage. Ever.

[Brian C. Miller]

(Actually I saw a color photograph of what the Army thought in the 1940s was appropriate desert camouflage: hot pink. I kid you not, that transport looked like a flamingo!)

[Cornelius]

Thanks for the info!

[Brian C. Miller]

http://vimeo.com/67115692

Richard Mosse (http://www.richardmosse.com) has done some 16mm motion picture work to complement his LF work. It's an interesting talk about the presentation!

[Drew Bedo]

He isn't using a Polaroid conversion for hand-held grab shots. Seems to me, that would be a natural application for that type of vamera.