Matthew Arnold: Topography Is Fate

North African Battlefields of World War II

“Matthew Arnold spent a month in Tunisia in 2011 and a month in Libya in 2012 to photograph these unfamiliar North African landscapes upon which many crucial battles in the North African Campaign were fought. The sites were found utilizing old battle maps to follow the paths that the Allied military units used. 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.”

The Topography is Fate book is out now.

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