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MATT CHAPMAN
Field Notes From The Last Line of Defence (2024 - 2025 ) is a project that attempts to redocument, and recontextualise a key feature in Southern England’s landscape. The GHQ Line, known colloquially as the last line of defence, was a physical barrier that spanned across much of the south of the UK, most notably through the surrey hills, in an attempt to protect London and the manufacturing north from a possible German invasion during the second world war. What this body of work does, is follow this line, from Farnham, to Dorking, walking along this physical line, documenting not just the remnants that were left after the war, but documenting the physical change the landscape has gone through in the process, from the creation of modern motorways, to craters being left in the ground to fill with water, to the people who made their homes in the towns they were stationed along.

This project also exists in photobook and large scale print form, and was exhibited at Free Range at The Truman Brewery, Shoreditch, and CREAM 2025 curated by Crane Kalman Gallery in Brighton in 2025. 

View a selection of images from the project here..




















By The Way is a monograph exploring Chapman’s reconnection with family. Through multiple talks with his grandfather, along with recollection from his childhood, Matt attempts to use the photograph to retell the stories he was told as a child, whilst also reconnecting with the narrator who told them. 


© 2025 By Matt Chapman - Photographer
matthewj.chapman@outlook.com