Inside the mind of Cristina
- alanconnor65
- Nov 9, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 20, 2020
Cristina de Middel
Blog
Grace Smith 2009 © Cristina de Middel
Cristina de Middel is a Spanish documentary photographer and artist. Born in Alicante, Spain in1975.
She was a Magnum nominee in 2017.
A little bio of some of her achievement’s.
2000
Oklahoma, US
M.A. Photography, University of Oklahoma. PROMOE Scholarship.
2001
Valencia, Spain
M.A Fine Arts, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.
2002
Barcelona, Spain
Photojournalism, Postgraduate Degree, Barcelona Autónoma University
2006
Madrid, Spain
IV War Correspondents Training, Ground forces Army School,
She started as a photojournalist, then she progressed to something that appealed to her artistic yearnings She is best known for her for self-published project, The Afronauts, released in 2012.
She blends documentary and conceptual imagery and has a very unique style.
Her process.
She felt that in photojournalism, there is very little space for the photographer’s opinion, even though on a lot of occasions, they are the only person that is out in the field. What she wanted to be able to do, was get her thoughts across, and tie them in with her images, so people get the whole thought process behind her work.
The Afronauts.
Her unconventional way of looking at things, was something she developed over her ten years as a photojournalist. Then 2012,she took a leap, and self-produced and released the acclaimed series The Afronauts (released 2012).What she did was explore the failed space program in Zambia in the early 1960’s.What she did in a series of images, and was a re-enactment of this mostly unknown piece of history, and she did it through images, and obscure narratives. And what this piece of work did was, challenge the preconceived ideas of the African continent.
The Gentlemen’s Club.
This is an ongoing piece, that she started in 2015 in Rio De Janeiro. It is about the lesser known side of prostitution, male prostitution. She put an advert in a newspaper in Rio De Janeiro, asking for prostitutes’ clients. Interested to see who these people were. She saw them as also being prostitute’s, as they were also selling a part of themselves (an unusual idea, but an interesting one). The response was overwhelming, and she then chose the ones that she wanted to be a part of this project.
Each male was asked about their experience, their personal history, and their motivation behind it. And she used this information in the captions of each individual image. She has tried to have this series published, but as of yet, there has been no interest.
She has also worked on commissions for The Nobel Peace Foundation, Christian Dior, Vanity Fair USA, Vogue USA and FC Barcelona.
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