Chloe Dewe Mathews (born 1982) is a British

documentary photographer Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional pho ...

, based in

St Leonards-on-Sea St Leonards-on-Sea (commonly known as St Leonards) is a town and seaside resort in the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. It has been part of the borough since the late 19th century and lies to the west of central Hastings. The origina ...

, UK. She is "best known for ambitious documentary projects that can take years of preparation." Dewe Mathews has said "I am exploring ways in which to project the past on to the present". Her series Shot at Dawn records sites where British, French and Belgian soldiers were executed for cowardice or desertion during the first world war. It was published as a book in 2014 and exhibited at

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

and at the

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

. ''In Search of Frankenstein'' was exhibited at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

in 2018. Dewe Mathews' work is held in the collections of the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (also known as the Herbert) is a museum, art gallery, records archive, learning centre, media studio and creative arts facility on Jordan Well, Coventry, England. Overview The museum is named after Sir Alfred Herb ...

and

Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust, known as Museums Sheffield is a charity created in 1998 to run Sheffield City Council’s non-industrial museums and galleries. Museums Sheffield currently manages three sites in the city: Graves Art Galle ...

Life and work

Dewe Mathews was born in 1982 in London. She studied fine art at the

Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

, Oxford. For her series Caspian, she walked around the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

, through Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. Her series Shot at Dawn records many of the sites across France and Belgium where around 1000 British, French and Belgian soldiers were executed for cowardice or desertion during the first world war. She photographed each site at dawn, the time that most of the men were executed; close to the date on which they occurred; and from around the same vantage that they were shot. It was commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford as part of a commemorative art series, published as a book in 2014 and exhibited in various places. Dewe Mathews completed an artist's residency at the Verbier 3-D Foundation, Bagnes, Switzerland in 2016 on the topic of the so-called

Year Without a Summer The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the extreme weather, coldest on record between the years of 1 ...

, a period of severe climate deterioration. This provided the backdrop for

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...

when writing ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

'' (1818) whilst staying in the same area. Dewe Mathews' series made there, ''In Search of Frankenstein,'' is concerned with contemporary environmental and social issues via the themes of Shelley's novel. She spent five years making Thames Log, a series about the variety of peoples' relationship with the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

Publications

Publications by Dewe Mathews

*''Shot at Dawn.'' Madrid:

Ivorypress Ivorypress was founded in London in 1996 by Elena Ochoa Foster as a publishing house specialising in artists' books. The project currently encompasses a wide range of areas and activities within the framework of contemporary art, including its o ...

, 2014. . With texts by

Geoff Dyer Geoff Dyer (born 5 June 1958) is an English author. He has written a number of novels and non-fiction books, some of which have won literary awards. Personal background Dyer was born and raised in Cheltenham, England, as the only child of a ...

Hew Strachan Sir Hew Francis Anthony Strachan ( ), (born 1 September 1949) is a British military historian, well known for his leadership in scholarly studies of the British Army and the history of the First World War. He is currently professor of internati ...

Helen McCarthy Helen McCarthy (born 27 February 1951) is the British author of such anime reference books as ''500 Manga Heroes and Villains'', ''Anime!'', ''The Anime Movie Guide'' and ''Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation''. She is the co-author of ...

and Paul Bonaventura. *''Sunday Service.'' Tate Modern and You. London:

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, 2014. With texts by Synthia Griffin and Phil Stokes. *''In Search of Frankenstein – Mary Shelley's Nightmare.'' Baden, Switzerland: Kodoji, 2018. . Dewe Mathews' photographs with reproductions of ''The Geneva Notebook,'' the first half of

's original manuscript for ''

.'' *''Caspian: The Elements.'' New York City:

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

; Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Press, 2018. . With essays by Morad Montazami,

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and arranger who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and f ...

and Arnold van Bruggen. *''Thames Log''. London: Loose Joints; Bristol: Martin Parr Foundation, 2021. . With a text by

Marina Warner Dame Marina Sarah Warner, (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publicatio ...

Publications with contributions by Dewe Mathews

*''Conflict: Time: Photography.'' London: Tate, 2014. . Edited by Simon Baker and Shoair Mavlian. Exhibition Catalogue.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*''Sunday Service,''

, London, 2014. *''Shot at Dawn,'' Stills, Edinburgh, 2014;

, Dublin, 2015–2016;

, Madrid, 2016. *''Congregation,'' Bosse & Baum, London, 2015. *''In Search of Frankenstein,''

, London, 2018.

Significant group exhibitions

*''Conflict, Time, Photography,''

, London, 2014–2015. Included ''Shot at Dawn.''

Awards

*2011: ''

British Journal of Photography The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews. History The magazine was established in Liverpo ...

'' International Photography Award *2014: Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography at the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

*2016: Vic Odden Award,

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

, Bath, UK

Collections

Dewe Mathews' work is held in the following permanent public collections: *

Collection: 4 prints from ''Shot at Dawn'' (as of 25 April 2018) *

(acquired with assistance from

Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

): 2 prints from ''Shot at Dawn'' (as of 25 April 2018) *

Graves Art Gallery Graves Art Gallery is an art gallery in Sheffield, England. The gallery is located above the Central Library in Sheffield city centre. It houses permanent displays from the city’s historic and contemporary collection of British and European ar ...

(acquired with assistance from the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...

): 3 prints from ''Shot at Dawn'' (as of 25 April 2018)Acquisitions & Art Consultancy
.

. Accessed 25 April 2018.

References

External links

*
TateShots: Chloe Dewe Mathews
(video)
Sunday Service
photographs at ''

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Dewe Mathews, Chloe 1982 births Living people British women photographers Photographers from Sussex 21st-century British photographers 21st-century women photographers