Chloe Dewe Mathews is a British photographer. She develops long-term projects dealing with history, place, and social memory, presenting works that combine photography and research.
In Search of Frankenstein – Mary Shelley’s Nightmare is a photobook that begins with the landscapes of the Swiss Alps, a place closely connected to Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. Photographed during an artist residency at the Verbier 3-D Foundation in 2016, the book juxtaposes snow-covered mountain landscapes with Swiss underground shelters built in the 1960s in preparation for nuclear disaster.
By contrasting melting glaciers with artificial underground spaces, the work connects the anxieties around science and progress that run through Shelley’s novel with contemporary environmental issues and nuclear threats. It reconsiders the place where a nineteenth-century story was born as a site reflecting present-day social and environmental unease.
In addition to the photographs, the book also includes facsimiles of the “Geneva Notebook,” which contains the first part of the manuscript of Frankenstein.
In Search of Frankenstein – Mary Shelley’s Nightmare Chloe Dewe Mathews Kodoji Press, 2018 170 × 228 × 20 mm Good condition for its age
