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Defensive position before a sandstorm, Alem Hamza Battlefield, Libya | Limited Edition of 10 Photograph

Matthew Arnold

United States

Photography, Color on Paper

Size: 48 W x 38 H x 0.2 D in

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ABOUT THE ARTWORK

"Topography Is Fate—North African Battlefields of World War II," published as a monograph by the German publisher, Kehrer Verlag, considers the varied landscapes of North Africa that the soldier of World War II was forced to endure. Thousands of miles from home, largely untraveled and ignorant of lands and peoples outside his home country, he was dropped onto the shores of what must have seemed to him a dangerous and alien environment—his understanding of the land limited to stereotype, myth and the relevant army field manual. The approach is conceptual, with the photographs of the North African battlefields presented, similar to the "New Topographic" photographers of previous generations, in an almost anonymous and neutral tone of voice. The images are taken in daylight, without complexity and noise, portraying a peaceful quietness of the desert or grassland to allow viewers to fill in that negative space with their own visualization of the war. Arnold has documented the battlefields as they currently stand in a personal style of landscape photography; impressionistic muted horizons of desert, coastal seascape and grassland, incorporating bunkers, trenches and physical artifacts of the conflict that remain as part of the environment. Some World War II battle sites, such as the D-Day beaches of Normandy, are well known and frequently visited. The critical battlefields of the North African campaign, which took place between June 1940 and May 1943, are particularly inaccessible, both because of their geographic location and because they exist within a region that continues to be affected by political strife and violent upheavals. Yet, in 2011 and 2012, he spent several months traveling from Egypt to Tunisia to document remote WWII battlefields where Axis and Allied forces fought against each other and against the elements amid challenging terrain. The project presented many obstacles, not only in locating all of the sites but also in obtaining the necessary travel documents, finding safe lodging and transport, and avoiding groups of protestors and rebel forces. Arnold utilized World War II military maps to follow the route taken by the Allies. Along the way, he photographed the captivating beauty of the now-peaceful landscape, from its craggy coastlines and lowland marshes to its rocky hills and barren expanses of sand. 70 years have not yet eradicated traces of the fighting—campsites can still be found—evident by the amount of ration tins, trench systems and pill boxes that still carry the marks of battle. Unexploded shells, barbed wire and mines still litter the landscapes of North Africa and occasionally claim yet another victim, as if the very land itself is reminding us of the tragedy of war. These photographs depict the peaceful landscape that it is today, so very different from yesterday.

DETAILS AND DIMENSIONS
Photography:

Color on Paper

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:

1

Size:

48 W x 38 H x 0.2 D in

SHIPPING AND RETURNS
Delivery Time:

Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.

Matthew Arnold is an American landscape photographer whose work strives to connect the specificity and significance of history with the topography of the land on which the history is shaped. His work has been exhibited and promoted widely across the United States and around the world in galleries and museums. His previous project was published in 2014 as a monograph entitled, Topography Is Fate—North African Battlefields of World War II, by the German publisher, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg. It includes a foreword written by Hilary Roberts, the Research Curator of Photography at the Imperial War Museums in Britain, along with an essay by Natalie Zelt, the co-author and co-curator of War/Photography: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath. Arnold was recently named a 2020 Critical Mass Top 50 Photographer by Photolucida. In 2021 Arnold will have his first major solo exhibition of his Amelia Earhart project at the Turchin Center for the Arts at Appalachian State University. This past summer he was asked to jury the Earth Photo Prize for the Royal Geographical Society in London. In 2019 he had his second solo exhibition at Happy Lucky No.1 Gallery in New York City for a parallel project entitled Ghosts and the Longing for Amelia. Ghosts is a multimedia project born of a long period of introspection. The project created a new perspective on process, and a deeper understanding of how obstructions in the path of life can ultimately lead to a different and possibly more revelatory direction in the creative development of the artist. In April of 2018 Arnold exhibited Topography Is Fate as a solo exhibition at the Gravy Gallery in Philadelphia. Previous solo exhibitions of Topography Is Fate have taken place at both Happy Lucky No.1 Gallery in New York City as well as at the Metropolitan Gallery in Philadelphia (organized by The Center for Emerging Visual Artists where he was a Fellowship Finalist). In 2016 he was a finalist for the Renaissance Prize at the Getty Images Gallery in London. His work was exhibited at the Arsenale di Venezia, in Venice, Italy as part of the Premio Arte Laguna. It was also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Guatemala, as part of the GuatePhoto Festival where he also gave an artist talk about his Topography Is Fate project.

Artist Recognition
Showed at the The Other Art Fair

Handpicked to show at The Other Art Fair presented by Saatchi Art in Los Angeles, Los Angeles

Artist featured in a collection

Artist featured by Saatchi Art in a collection

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