Incoming by Richard Mosse

An artist book by Irish artist Richard Moss.

Richard Moss was born in Ireland in 1980 and studied art and English literature at Yale University in the United States and the University of London in England. Through a photographic approach based on deep insight and a careful selection of techniques, he captures contemporary social issues, including conflicts and disasters in various parts of the world.

In this work, "Incoming", he examines the most pressing humanitarian and political issues of our time: war, persecution, and the displacement of millions of people due to climate change. Moss, who collaborated with composer Ben Frost and cinematographer Trevor Tweeten to create the film, then created this book by reconstructing stills from the film. The journeys of refugees and migrants across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe are filmed with a new weapon-grade surveillance technology that can detect the human body from a distance of 30.3 km. Invisible to skin color, this military camera technology records only the contours of relative heat differences within the frame, foregrounding the fragile human struggle for survival in a fierce environment. Moss's use of military telephoto cameras, which literally and figuratively allude to hypothermia, mortality, epidemics, global warming, weapons targeting, border surveillance, xenophobia, and the "bare life" of the stateless, is an attempt to reveal its internal logic. The book follows the narrative flow of the images, from live footage of fighting inside Syria as U.S. warplanes bomb IS positions on the ground to refugees boarding rescue boats off the coast of Libya, gathering along the Turkish coast under cover of darkness, refugees making the dangerous journey through the Sahara Desert, and stills from the burning of a jungle refugee camp. Photographs will be included. Like the images, the artist's book bears witness to the rupture of recent global events mediated by weapons camera technology while at the same time shedding light on the ethical, technical, logistical, and aesthetic issues involved in the creation of this massive work.

Together with a text by Moss and philosopher Giorgio Agamben.

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Title: Incoming
Artist: Richard Mosse
MACK, 2017
Softcover, OTA-binding
196 x 175 x 34 mm
576 pages
Text in English
First edition
8,250 yen