I Saw a Tree Bearing Stones in the Place of Apples and Pears
by Emilia Martin

Co-funded by the European Union and developed in the project Intergalactica

I find myself in the dusty basement of an impressive old house, filled with astronomy related antiques and mysterious objects. I am meeting yet another meteorite collector who presents to me one cosmic rock after another. “This is a fragment of the bigger one that wiped out an entire forest in Siberia, can you imagine?” he says excitedly. Some of them look no different than a common rock that can be found on the side of the road, some are a little more shiny, unusual looking. They are compelling, but it is not their looks that fascinates me. It is their unique capability to carry stories which tell the history of human relationships with what is perceived as fiction and what as fact. While Western science has only acknowledged the existence of meteorites in the late 18th century, history is filled with countless mythologies that originate from firsthand witnesses. Several communities believed that meteorites were sent by an angered god, while others claimed it to be an act of the devil. Some even saw a meteorite as a miracle from the skies, sent to save those who were struggling. There are multiple accounts of a befallen cosmic rock becoming a place of worship, where communities gathered to grieve or to celebrate. One account speaks of a meteorite that was tied to the ground with an iron chain by those fearing that it may return to its cosmic origins. Other witnesses anointed their cosmic rock with oils and deemed it sacred, placing it inside a temple. Another account speaks of a community that powdered a meteorite and consumed it, based on their belief that it was medicine sent from the heavens. These accounts and mythologies woven throughout the centuries around the globe speak of the many lives that cosmic rocks had lived before their acknowledgement by modern science. Meteorites hold a great contradiction: they are firsthand witnesses of outer space, travellers from deep time, offering a glimpse into the origin of life on Earth. And yet, they are rock whom we attribute with passivity, confinement and silence, symbolising the inability to communicate or express. Through this lens we submit them to countless narratives while they forever guard their tales, for better or for worse.

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Publisher: Yogurt Editions

Curator: Francesco Rombaldi
Graphic Design: Yogurt Creative Agency
Cover Artwork: Mattia Ammirati

Hard cover
23 x 17 cm
208 pages

Print run: 700 copies
Printed by: Grafiche Veneziane, Venezia

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Award & Mentions:

Paper Photo Festival 2025
Shortlist