Through the Violet Glass was a series originally published in the Spring 2013 Issue of WORD: Isla Vista Arts & Culture Magazine. Shortened simply to “Violet,” the photographs presented here are an expansion of that project. Although the series initially focused on Isla Vista as its backdrop, it has since widened to include greater California and New Orleans.
Below is the original published text included with the series:
In 2011, photographer Richard Mosse traveled the Congo and documented the war-torn jungle with stocks of discontinued Kodak Aerochrome film. Originally created for 1940’s military surveillance, the film captures the spectrum of infrared light invisible to the human eye, revealing bucolic Congo landscapes steeped in vivid pinks and electric sapphires. Representing reality as a psychedelic surreal, Mosse blends fiction and truth the tell the captivating narrative of a genocide widely painted over by media, and with that challenges the conventions of photojournalism. The series that follows —all shot with Lomochrome 35mm film inspired by Kodak’s Aerochrome —reveals an invisible spectrum within our own landscape.
