Cristina de Middel
Reaching for the stars
The dream of traveling to space is almost as old as humankind. Unlike many other seemingly fanciful ideas, this one actually came true on 12 April 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Juri Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth in a spaceship at an altitude of some 300 kilometres. But in addition to the widely known space programmes of the world’s two great powers – the United States and the Soviet Union – other countries also harboured ambitions to join the space race, such as the comparatively small African state of Zambia. Edward Makuka Nkoloso, a scientist and teacher, was responsible for this high-flying project and established the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy for this purpose in 1964. His dream was to make Zambia the first country to reach first the Moon and then Mars. To this end, he recruited astronauts and prepared them for their trip using rather questionable methods. One candidate was 17-year-old Matha Mwambwa, whom Nkoloso intended to shoot to the Moon in a copper rocket together with two cats and a Christian missionary. The “Afronauts”, as he called them, were to take off on 24 October 1964, the day when Zambia would gain independence from Great Britain. The fact that Mwambwa became pregnant was probably not the only reason for the mission’s failure. Official bodies in the country insist to this day that they had considered Nkoloso’s plan as a crazy idea from the start.
In her series “The Afronauts”, Spanish photographer Cristina de Middel brings this spectacular story back to life and traces the origins of a shattered dream. Her fictitious documentation of the failed space programme takes the observer to empty lunar landscapes, rockets with a Zambian flag, astronauts in space suits and the would-be mission control centre. In doing so, her photographs present an amusing what-if scenario. Her colourful images tell of the aspirations of a country on the verge of independence. By combining staged shots with real as well as fictitious documents, de Middel consciously allows the boundaries between illusion and reality to blur. Her photographs illustrate an event that was not only never documented, but also never took place as such. In doing so, she lets her imagination run free, creating a wide spectrum of motifs, from expansive views of sandy craters and blue skies to the details on colourful space suits.
With a healthy dose of irony, Cristina de Middel emphasises the makeshift nature of the space programme and its technical equipment. But she also conveys the pride and hope of a country still in its infancy and about to break free from a colonial power. Ultimately, the “Afronauts” also examines photography’s relationship with the truth as well as its inexhaustible potential for telling stories. Beyond the facts, Cristina de Middel opens our eyes to a world in which reality is more absurd than fiction ever could be.
A video is available for this artist in our media library.
Biographical information
1975
born in Alicante, Spain
2000
graduates with a M.A. in Photography from University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
2001
graduates with a M.A. Fine Arts from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
2002
graduates with a Postgraduate Degree in Photojournalism from Barcelona Autónoma University, Barcelona, Spain
2012
awarded with the Photo Folio Review at the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France
2012
publishes “The Afronauts” in Madrid, Spain
2013
receives the Infinity Award for a Publication “The Afronauts” from International Center of Photography in New York, USA
2013
shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize
2019
becomes an Associate member at the Photo agency Magnum Paris
lives in Brasil