Strange tale brings success for Spanish photographer
What happens when you mix a former photojournalist and the tale of a Zambian space programme? A photobook called The Afronauts.
Disillusioned with her work as a photojournalist, Cristina de Middel took a year off, and spent part of it working on a project about Zambia’s attempted space project.
When the country gained independence in 1964, sending astronauts to space was a way to prove its worth.
“Zambia wanted to show the rest of the world that they were as big as any other country,” said de Middel.
De Middel self-published her photobook about the project, The Afronauts, in 2012, and received attention from international media, a nomination for the prestigious Deutsche Börse photography award, and an Infinity Award from the International Centre of Photography.
It also earnt her an invitation to Wintec’s annual international festival of media, arts and design, Spark.
“This one has been my biggest success in terms of sharing a story that really happened, because it has been published everywhere.”
The book’s worth has also skyrocketed.
De Middel produced 1000 books, which she sold for around 25 Euros, but they can now be found on Ebay for around 2000 Euros.
“It was the first thing that I did 100% that it was convinced it was good,” said de Middel.
“I was really giving myself the last chance, and just giving everything to it.”
Photos in the book aim to recreate the space project, while playing on cliches to provoke debate.
It also contains technical-style drawings and re-typed documentation.
De Middel enjoyed blurring the lines between fact and fiction, and found the Zambian space project the perfect vehicle.
The game was to pretend that something which really happened was real, she said.
Ironically, the Spanish gallery de Middel was exhibiting at told her it did not want to show the Afronauts photos when she had finished over half of the project.
“I still believed in the story, and I still believed it was really worth finishing it,” said de Middel.
“So I just decided to go free and just tell the story the best way I could.”
A small university in the south of Spain which supports emerging photographers came to her aid and offered her a grant to do an exhibition and create a catalogue.
So she did a basic exhibition and put the funds, and her own savings, into the catalogue – and that became The Afronauts.
This latest project brought de Middel to the second stage of her three-tier career plan: making money from photography she likes.
Stage one was making money from photography, and the third stage will be “making a good life” from photography she likes.
She already has projects lined up to start that journey, including a book mixing photos of China with ‘censored’ passages from Mao’s little red book, and work with the Archive of Modern Conflict.
“I think if I have one line that I want to follow, it’s ‘enjoy.’ Like having fun with photography, that’s a success for me already.”
