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Displaced, Irish photographer Richard Mosse’s recent retrospective at Bologna’s Fondazione MAST, offers an unorthodox and uncompromising perspective on planetary crises through his technologically distorted documentary photography. 

From afar, the surreal, hallucinogenic surfaces of Richard Mosse’s photography might be mistaken for just that: optical illusions and skillful displays of advanced imaging techniques. A closer look, however, reveals their preoccupation with planetary crises, from refugee camps in Turkey to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Using technologies such as drone footage, discontinued reconnaissance infrared film and thermal imaging – technologies often deployed militarily – in his works, Mosse repurposes these destructive agents as creative ingredients, and in the process, subverts traditional storytelling methods around war, migration and climate collapse. Recently on show at Fondazione MAST in Bologna, Italy, Displaced (Mosse’s first anthological exhibition) combined 77 large-scale photographs and two video installations to deliver an uncompromising look at the wake of destruction in humanity’s rearview mirror. Mosse’s visually absorbing works viscerally resensitise us to these urgent stories in danger of being lost to the dulling influence of the 24-hour news cycle. ◉