Searching for the cold spot

Searching for the Cold Spot carries us off into a magical world. In analog photographs Hanna Mattes captures meteorite craters, stones of cosmic origin, as well as breathtakingly filigreed minerals. She traveled through large parts of the USA on her search for craters that were created by the impact of meteorites. While dealing with such occurrences and places steeped in legend, Hanna Mattes finds her very own visual interpretation that is neither purely documentary nor excessively esoteric. Her photographs –occasionally transformed through the use of watercolors – capture the mysteries and stunning relics without robbing them of their secrets or their fascination. At the same time Matthes combed through mineralogical collections in diverse natural history museums, looking for unusual relics from interplanetary space, ores, opals and crystalline quartzes. Hanna Mattes’ first photographic monograph inspires us to an almost metaphysical contemplation about the life-giving, but also life-destroying powers of meteorites.