# Matthew Arnold > Official website of Matthew Arnold, a Los Angeles-based artist and photographer who creates long-term projects investigating the physical evidence of history embedded within the landscape. Matthew Arnold uses landscape as a lens through which to examine history, myth, and time. He is drawn to sites where human ambition collides with forces beyond our control—war, exploration, extinction, and geological rupture—and where the land carries quiet, residual evidence of these points in time. Across his practice, photography forms the foundation, expanded through drawing, sculpture, archival materials, and scientific artifacts. Together, these elements explore how knowledge is constructed and how land holds history long after events pass from memory. This file indexes only the current public pages at https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/. It does not include pages or content from Matthew Arnold’s former APhotoFolio-hosted website. ## Artist - [Matthew Arnold — Home and Contact](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/): Overview of Matthew Arnold’s artistic practice, current projects, exhibitions, biography, mailing-list signup, and contact information. Arnold is based in Los Angeles. His projects have taken him from the deserts of North Africa and the jungles of the Yucatán to remote Pacific islands and paleontological field sites across North America. His fieldwork is supported by research involving geological maps, historical archives, and scientific papers. Email: matthew@matthewarnoldphotography.com. Telephone: +1 917 497 5054. ## Projects - [The Day the Earth Died — Fieldwork at the Edge of Deep Time](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/the-day-the-earth-died): Phase 1 focuses on the Chicxulub Crater. The project examines the asteroid impact that occurred near present-day Chicxulub on the Yucatán Peninsula approximately sixty-six million years ago, creating a crater nearly 180 kilometers across and contributing to the extinction of more than seventy-five percent of living species. The K–Pg boundary is presented as both a geological rupture and a conceptual threshold. The multidisciplinary project uses photography as its foundation and documents sites central to understanding the impact. The buried crater was mapped using GPS and photographed at ten-degree intervals around its circumference in the Yucatán. The page states that the project will expand through drawing and sculpture informed by asteroids, geological strata, fossil records, sediment layers, and impact debris. It includes the works *Study of an Asteroid, No. 1* and *Study of Starlight in the Night Sky, No. 1*, together with crater maps, GPS diagrams, and photographs made around the crater. - [Life | Force | Formation — A Personal Examination of Naturphilosophie](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/life-force-formation): A project informed by the philosophical approach to nature associated with Friedrich Schelling. The page describes Naturphilosophie as a response to mechanistic science and identifies gravity, light, and life as interconnected areas of study. It connects empirical observation with philosophical reflection and presents an experience of nature as a form of self-discovery. Arnold describes this project as a deliberate examination of his own presence in the landscape through visual isolation and self-awareness in nature. The work records what “rises up before” him by isolating objects and expanses of nature that may be close to home, far away, or constructed. The page includes titled groups and studies such as *Isolated Stones*, *Peaks*, *Nurture and Nature*, *Study of Peaks, No. 1*, *Path to a Photograph*, *Shadows of Trees*, *Study of Trees, No. 1*, *Curvatures of Light*, and *Shading with Light and Stone*. - [Longing for Amelia — The Historical and Mythological Landscape](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/longing-for-amelia): Phase 1 focuses on the Marshall and Mariana Islands. The project concerns the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan during their 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe. The page notes that only theories remain and asks why Earhart and the mythology surrounding her disappearance continue to hold public attention. The first stage consists of work from a five-week expedition to the Mariana and Marshall Islands, where Arnold photographed seascapes and landscapes associated with the “Japanese Capture” theory. The project incorporates photographs, drawings, archival documents, historical ephemera, maps, and constructions. The page also describes potential later stages involving theories connected to the Phoenix Islands and Papua New Guinea. Claims about Earhart’s possible forced landing, capture, imprisonment, execution, or death are presented on the site as theories or reported accounts, not confirmed conclusions. - [Topography Is Fate — North African Battlefields of World War II](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/topography-is-fate): A project examining the North African landscapes endured by Allied soldiers during World War II. The page includes a foreword by Hilary Roberts and describes surviving traces of the fighting, including campsites, ration tins, trench systems, pillboxes, unexploded shells, barbed wire, and mines. Arnold spent two and a half years working on the project and traveled across North Africa from Egypt to Tunisia. Historical battle maps were used to follow the paths of Allied military units and locate battlefield sites. The page acknowledges the historical knowledge and logistical support of Steven Hamilton and his teams. The photographs depict the landscapes as they appear today, contrasting their present quietness with their wartime history. ## Exhibitions - [Longing for Amelia — Galerie XII, Los Angeles](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/longing-for-amelia-galerie-xii): Documentation of Matthew Arnold’s first exhibition in Los Angeles, presenting *Longing for Amelia* at Galerie XII. The page also notes his later inclusion in the gallery’s group exhibition *Branches as Bridges*. - [Permanent War: The Age of Global Conflict — MFA Boston](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/topography-is-fate-permanent-war-mfa-boston): Documentation of the exhibition *Permanent War: The Age of Global Conflict*, curated by Pamela Allara. The exhibition explored contemporary warfare through photography, video, poetry, and mixed-media installations. Rather than concentrating on direct representations of combat, it examined technological systems, psychological consequences, and persistent physical traces. - [Longing for Amelia — Turchin Center for the Arts](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/longing-for-amelia-turchin-center-for-the-arts): Documentation of *Longing for Amelia* at the Turchin Center for the Arts at Appalachian State University. The exhibition included more than fifty pieces and is described on the page as the most complete installation of the project. - [Topography Is Fate — Happy Lucky No. 1 Gallery, New York City](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/topography-is-fate-happy-lucky-no-1-gallery): Documentation of the first New York City solo exhibition of *Topography Is Fate* at Happy Lucky No. 1 Gallery. The page states that the project was subsequently exhibited at Metropolitan Gallery in Philadelphia later that year. ## Contact - [Contact Matthew Arnold](https://matthewarnoldphotography.com/): Matthew Arnold is an artist and photographer based in Los Angeles. Email: matthew@matthewarnoldphotography.com. Telephone: +1 917 497 5054.