0:00:00.561,0:00:02.978 (calm music) 0:00:08.790,0:00:10.950 - Climate change exists[br]outside of human perception. 0:00:10.950,0:00:12.093 It's bigger than us. 0:00:14.100,0:00:15.960 We can see local expressions of it, 0:00:15.960,0:00:18.030 but we can't see the climate changing 0:00:18.030,0:00:19.980 and that's really the inherent problem. 0:00:21.540,0:00:24.337 It's on a scale beyond[br]what we can perceive. 0:00:28.148,0:00:30.050 The rain forest itself[br]spans nine countries. 0:00:30.050,0:00:31.200 So as a subject alone, 0:00:31.200,0:00:32.943 it's hard to imagine as an object. 0:00:33.917,0:00:36.500 (tree falling) 0:00:40.320,0:00:42.660 We're really on the tipping point now. 0:00:42.660,0:00:45.840 New research suggests that[br]actually the rainforest 0:00:45.840,0:00:48.030 is no longer absorbing carbon. 0:00:48.030,0:00:49.080 There's so much burning happening, 0:00:49.080,0:00:51.753 it's now a net producer of carbon. 0:00:54.870,0:00:56.820 But how to tell the story adequately, 0:00:56.820,0:00:59.580 I mean we've seen one picture[br]of a burning rainforest, 0:00:59.580,0:01:00.780 we've seen them all in a way. 0:01:00.780,0:01:02.250 And those pictures are very important, 0:01:02.250,0:01:03.083 but you know, 0:01:03.083,0:01:05.628 there's so much more to unpack[br]in the Brazilian Amazon. 0:01:06.803,0:01:08.400 I'm very interested in[br]trying to find a way to 0:01:08.400,0:01:11.940 express extremely, deeply complex things 0:01:11.940,0:01:14.230 by looking very carefully[br]at these loaded landscapes, 0:01:14.230,0:01:18.303 bigger subjects that the[br]camera can't necessarily see. 0:01:26.760,0:01:29.460 My first big project is[br]my first real project, 0:01:29.460,0:01:31.410 but I chose the missing persons crisis 0:01:31.410,0:01:34.170 in postwar Balkan nations. 0:01:34.170,0:01:35.580 A lot of people had not come home 0:01:35.580,0:01:37.410 from war and had disappeared. 0:01:37.410,0:01:40.050 They were assumed to have[br]been buried in mass graves 0:01:40.050,0:01:41.250 which had never been identified. 0:01:41.250,0:01:43.740 So the beautiful landscape of Bosnia 0:01:43.740,0:01:46.680 and across the Balkans was[br]underwritten by this tragedy. 0:01:46.680,0:01:50.115 And so there was an inherent[br]tension within the land itself, 0:01:50.115,0:01:53.610 but also an inherent abstraction[br]within the subject matter. 0:01:53.610,0:01:55.200 And I was going around trying[br]to photograph something 0:01:55.200,0:01:57.030 that you can't put in front of the lens. 0:01:57.030,0:01:59.110 And I couldn't see. 0:02:00.870,0:02:03.330 The lack of closure of an entire society 0:02:03.330,0:02:05.640 to move on from war[br]because of an inability 0:02:05.640,0:02:07.023 to mourn the dead. 0:02:09.300,0:02:11.670 And I started just[br]looking at the landscape 0:02:11.670,0:02:12.933 and documenting 0:02:14.190,0:02:19.190 I suppose the absence within[br]the lived environment, 0:02:19.710,0:02:20.970 the inscription on the land, 0:02:20.970,0:02:22.083 at least emotionally. 0:02:23.040,0:02:24.780 But for me it was foundational. 0:02:24.780,0:02:26.730 In a way it's something[br]that I keep coming back 0:02:26.730,0:02:28.413 to in maybe all my projects. 0:02:36.090,0:02:38.550 Kodak had announced the discontinuation 0:02:38.550,0:02:41.285 of a specific infrared[br]film called Aerohrome 0:02:41.285,0:02:43.943 that was invented in World[br]War II in collaboration 0:02:43.943,0:02:46.283 with the US military for[br]camouflage detection. 0:02:48.750,0:02:51.660 So infrared light bounces[br]off the chlorophyll 0:02:51.660,0:02:52.890 in healthy plants. 0:02:52.890,0:02:55.230 Camouflage tends to be made of material, 0:02:55.230,0:02:56.400 fabric or paint 0:02:56.400,0:02:58.680 and all of those don't have chlorophyll. 0:02:58.680,0:03:01.020 If you could image register infrared light 0:03:01.020,0:03:03.180 you could instantly pick[br]out the enemy targets 0:03:03.180,0:03:05.280 essentially seeing through the camouflage. 0:03:12.840,0:03:14.790 In Congo, back then there was at least 50 0:03:14.790,0:03:15.630 different arm groups. 0:03:15.630,0:03:17.280 I think now there's more than 80 0:03:17.280,0:03:18.570 fighting against each other. 0:03:18.570,0:03:20.800 So it's a very opaque conflict 0:03:23.430,0:03:26.373 and that as a result means[br]it's very overlooked. 0:03:27.840,0:03:29.640 I was taking a medium that literally 0:03:29.640,0:03:31.830 can make visible what we can't see 0:03:31.830,0:03:35.043 and I was smashing it into an unseeness. 0:03:37.080,0:03:38.970 That metaphoric leap was very important 0:03:38.970,0:03:41.040 and it turned out the more I pushed it 0:03:41.040,0:03:42.780 it began to really bare fruit. 0:03:42.780,0:03:45.510 It started to be raising awareness 0:03:45.510,0:03:48.060 of some of these narratives[br]that I was documenting 0:03:48.060,0:03:50.853 and that was remarkable. 0:03:53.190,0:03:55.380 But that was the sort of[br]beginning of a new phase 0:03:55.380,0:03:57.480 in my practice which I[br]think is kind of continuing 0:03:57.480,0:04:00.330 until today of using[br]surveillance technologies 0:04:00.330,0:04:03.300 to try to push the limits of the camera, 0:04:03.300,0:04:05.553 of the documentary image specifically. 0:04:09.120,0:04:10.530 Finishing my project in Congo 0:04:10.530,0:04:12.900 I found out about a[br]specific surveillance camera 0:04:12.900,0:04:15.900 that can see and perceive heat. 0:04:15.900,0:04:18.600 It's proven to image the human body heat 0:04:18.600,0:04:20.430 from 30 kilometers distance, 0:04:20.430,0:04:21.843 which is a good 19 miles. 0:04:22.830,0:04:26.283 The image that it produced[br]was very uncanny and haunting. 0:04:28.230,0:04:30.180 The heat within our blood and our veins 0:04:30.180,0:04:33.123 is instantly depicted in[br]ways that we can't see 0:04:33.123,0:04:34.410 with the human eye, 0:04:34.410,0:04:36.183 our breath, our sweat. 0:04:37.454,0:04:38.640 (beeping sound) 0:04:38.640,0:04:39.663 - Wait, wait, wait, wait. 0:04:39.663,0:04:40.496 Just a moment. 0:04:40.496,0:04:41.663 Just a moment. 0:04:47.910,0:04:49.050 - And at that time, 0:04:49.050,0:04:53.619 there was this exponential[br]wave of illegal immigration 0:04:53.619,0:04:55.110 into the European Union. 0:04:55.110,0:05:00.110 Refugees come to claim their[br]human rights of asylum. 0:05:04.080,0:05:06.720 This camera itself can be[br]seen as a weapons technology 0:05:06.720,0:05:08.580 to detect and to turn them back. 0:05:08.580,0:05:11.610 So it was the perfect prism to mediate all 0:05:11.610,0:05:15.030 of the complex narratives[br]that I began to document 0:05:15.030,0:05:16.580 over a course of several years. 0:05:20.640,0:05:21.990 There were a lot of people 0:05:21.990,0:05:24.540 and there still are a lot of people, 0:05:24.540,0:05:27.660 dying, drowning of[br]exposure to the weather. 0:05:27.660,0:05:30.000 And this camera is designed to indexically 0:05:30.000,0:05:32.250 reveal human mortality expressed 0:05:32.250,0:05:34.053 through cellular combustion. 0:05:35.610,0:05:38.130 This is a remarkable instance 0:05:38.130,0:05:40.530 of the camera showing us[br]something we can't even see. 0:05:40.530,0:05:43.380 Red Cross volunteers[br]rubbing the life giving heat 0:05:43.380,0:05:45.810 onto the blankets that have been swaddled 0:05:45.810,0:05:48.420 around this dying person. 0:05:48.420,0:05:50.580 And you could see the thermal hand print, 0:05:50.580,0:05:52.833 the life giving warmth being transferred. 0:05:53.820,0:05:55.320 I'm there primarily as a human 0:05:55.320,0:05:57.384 and there are instances[br]where we put our things 0:05:57.384,0:06:00.420 things down and help[br]when there's no one else. 0:06:00.420,0:06:02.073 That's just what humans do. 0:06:03.150,0:06:05.190 But in the instances[br]when we continue to film, 0:06:05.190,0:06:08.949 when there are other volunteers[br]for example, working, 0:06:08.949,0:06:12.873 there's a real sense of[br]belief in what we do, 0:06:14.100,0:06:19.100 a sense of faith in the importance[br]of the documentary image 0:06:19.800,0:06:21.630 of the evidential image. 0:06:21.630,0:06:24.690 Otherwise you wouldn't go[br]to those lengths to carry 0:06:24.690,0:06:27.693 those that kind of recording out. 0:06:31.140,0:06:34.230 So I made a series of[br]panoramic large scale images, 0:06:34.230,0:06:36.810 heat maps of refugee camps. 0:06:36.810,0:06:39.270 And I also made a three[br]screen immersive video 0:06:39.270,0:06:43.320 called Incoming with sound by Ben Frost 0:06:43.320,0:06:45.540 and cinematography by Trevor Tweeten. 0:06:45.540,0:06:48.007 So these are the good friends of mine 0:06:48.007,0:06:50.490 who I collaborated with[br]also in the Enclave in Congo 0:06:50.490,0:06:53.853 and whom I worked with again[br]on my new film, Broken Spectre. 0:06:59.409,0:07:02.076 Can we try ultra on this screen? 0:07:15.174,0:07:16.230 Photography is at the very heart 0:07:16.230,0:07:20.160 of understanding the[br]velocity of deforestation 0:07:20.160,0:07:21.750 and I began researching the cameras 0:07:21.750,0:07:23.950 in the satellites that[br]produce all the data. 0:07:31.260,0:07:33.540 But what really made me[br]more curious was the fact 0:07:33.540,0:07:36.510 that the same cameras are[br]being used by agribusiness 0:07:36.510,0:07:40.053 and mining to maximize the[br]exploitation of the land. 0:07:45.000,0:07:46.980 But I also wanted to change gears 0:07:46.980,0:07:49.110 because a lot of the[br]stuff we see in the Amazon 0:07:49.110,0:07:52.620 is taken from over, from a high altitude. 0:07:52.620,0:07:55.070 What about the stuff we[br]don't see, the non-human? 0:08:03.420,0:08:07.110 If you take one square inch[br]of life in the rainforest, 0:08:07.110,0:08:09.510 it's just, it's tripping with life. 0:08:09.510,0:08:11.823 Just the amount of[br]species is extraordinary. 0:08:13.350,0:08:15.687 Scientists use ultraviolet lights to try 0:08:15.687,0:08:17.490 and show things about plants. 0:08:17.490,0:08:18.960 So I borrow that language 0:08:18.960,0:08:20.700 and created these very strange, 0:08:20.700,0:08:23.493 almost gothic nocturns. 0:08:29.070,0:08:31.890 - Yeah, we can put the big flat bar here. 0:08:31.890,0:08:32.723 Let's keep that. 0:08:33.780,0:08:35.280 - You can see actually little animals 0:08:35.280,0:08:37.170 in there moving around. 0:08:37.170,0:08:38.460 We had a lot of technical issues. 0:08:38.460,0:08:40.440 - Yeah, we'd spend hours and hours 0:08:40.440,0:08:42.810 and then all of a sudden[br]the light would turn off 0:08:42.810,0:08:44.220 and then or the camera would shut down. 0:08:44.220,0:08:46.720 Actually half the time the[br]camera was overheating. 0:08:52.200,0:08:54.720 - The third scale that I chose to examine 0:08:54.720,0:08:56.013 was the human scale. 0:09:03.780,0:09:05.790 We hold a lot of responsibility 0:09:05.790,0:09:08.760 for the processes that[br]unfold in the Amazon. 0:09:08.760,0:09:11.130 A lot of the cheap beef[br]directly coming straight 0:09:11.130,0:09:14.730 from encroached primary forest[br]and also just our banks. 0:09:14.730,0:09:16.230 A lot of that money's predicated 0:09:16.230,0:09:18.423 on agribusiness interests in Brazil. 0:09:19.290,0:09:21.600 So it's everywhere. 0:09:21.600,0:09:24.630 It surrounds us, but how[br]do we implicate the viewer? 0:09:24.630,0:09:27.352 This is the real problem and[br]one that we wanted to do. 0:09:27.352,0:09:30.363 And our answer was to make a western. 0:09:40.770,0:09:42.780 And that's weirdly incongruous 0:09:42.780,0:09:44.670 you would think with the rainforest, 0:09:44.670,0:09:46.950 but actually everywhere[br]we went in the rainforest 0:09:46.950,0:09:50.100 a lot of the processes we were[br]witnessing of deforestation 0:09:50.100,0:09:51.813 were being carried out by cowboys. 0:09:57.330,0:10:00.840 Cowboy culture actually[br]began centuries ago in Spain 0:10:00.840,0:10:02.850 and then it was exported to North America 0:10:02.850,0:10:04.770 where it became its own distinct thing. 0:10:04.770,0:10:07.680 And when it made its way to[br]Northern Brazil in the Amazon 0:10:07.680,0:10:11.730 it became sort of bastardized[br]by the cultural aspirations 0:10:11.730,0:10:16.730 of the United States, of manifest destiny 0:10:16.890,0:10:19.260 which had already[br]devastated the environment 0:10:19.260,0:10:21.780 and the Indigenous communities[br]in the United States, 0:10:21.780,0:10:24.780 but is now doing the same in the Amazon, 0:10:24.780,0:10:26.673 and it's almost identical in spirit. 0:10:30.240,0:10:32.040 The texture of the Spaghetti Western 0:10:32.040,0:10:33.960 immediately resonates with the viewer, 0:10:33.960,0:10:35.510 with the Western viewer anyway. 0:10:38.250,0:10:40.770 And I think that hopefully[br]that will be overly 0:10:40.770,0:10:41.940 familiar to us. 0:10:41.940,0:10:42.940 This is our culture. 0:10:57.870,0:10:59.460 We don't set out, 0:10:59.460,0:11:01.320 open the door one[br]morning with a fixed idea 0:11:01.320,0:11:02.770 that we have to go and prove. 0:11:03.750,0:11:07.470 We try to absorb the narrative[br]in the field in real life 0:11:07.470,0:11:09.180 and that's a conversation with the subject 0:11:09.180,0:11:11.480 and with the people whom[br]we meet along the way. 0:11:16.590,0:11:18.330 - There's nothing that[br]is like actually being 0:11:18.330,0:11:19.980 in the field and you[br]just learn so much just 0:11:19.980,0:11:22.110 from conversations with[br]people on the ground. 0:11:22.110,0:11:23.163 It's just amazing. 0:11:28.058,0:11:31.170 - My power, if I have any, is[br]to be able to show you this 0:11:31.170,0:11:35.210 what I've seen in a[br]more powerful way than, 0:11:35.210,0:11:37.800 I dunno than perhaps the[br]pictures that you've seen 0:11:37.800,0:11:39.570 in the newspaper of the same thing. 0:11:39.570,0:11:44.570 Or in a new and different way[br]and to make you remember that.