Green to Pink in Congo

Imagine a magical film that turns anything green into amazing shades of lavender and pink! In the days before photoshop, there was Kodak Aerochrome, a film used initially by the military to detect camouflage (yeah - not sure about the logistics of using this film in the midst of combat in the 1940s, but I guess it worked), and later by artists to get great album covers for those like the Grateful Dead or Jimi Hendrix. 

Fast forward to the here and now and Irish photographer, Richard Mosse has taken that film and used it deep in the Congo, capturing these amazing shots. Mosse says that using the film "has been an endless trial, negotiating my own inadequacy with a military reconnaissance technology that registers a type of light that is invisible to the human eye.....I was literally photographing blind. The film places me at the limits of representation, the points at which not just photography but perception itself begins to fail."

If you happen to live in New York City, head over to the Jack Shainman Gallery before the 23rd to check out an exhibition of this series! I can't imagine the thrill of seeing what each picture turned into...what it would have been like to see the results of each shot....

{Photos: Richard Mosse; quote NPR The Picture Show}