Letters to the Director is not simply a set of standard photographs. Spanning four floors plus the ground level of Madrid’s Sala del Canal de Isabel II, the installation serves as a guided gateway to understand the photographer’s intended approaches for viewers.
Access evokes the atmosphere of an old newspaper newsroom, where information is compiled and sometimes reshaped. Visitors can affix cut-out headlines to photographs, challenging the connection between image and accompanying text.
The first floor centers on a provocative exploration of sexuality, focusing on prostitution and how media representations shape perception. The gallery presents photographs of brothel clients who share their experiences with the photographer in exchange for payment. Nearly a hundred interviews span multiple continents. By blending documentary reality with narrative fiction, the artist revisits early work from The Life and Mysteries of Paula P and later material from Club of Gentlemen, recontextualizing these testimonies to reveal the fluid boundary between truth and storytelling.
Another room addresses immigration on the Mexico border, a region highlighted as a global crossroads between nations. Shot during the years of a particular presidency, the exhibition emphasizes the bravery of those who leave home in search of safety and opportunity in a hostile environment.
The third floor shifts focus to the Afghan conflict, presenting a series that intensifies the clash between documentary realism and conceptual interpretation, strengthening the impact of the imagery.
The upper area hosts what resembles a director’s newsroom, where the voices of news protagonists intertwine with the commentary of broadcasters and program presenters, creating a layered auditory landscape that mirrors the way information travels through media channels.
Life and miracles…
Alongside the main display, the exhibit catalog and other materials are presented, including archival photographs, a box containing reproductions of select works, Paula P.’s Life and Miracles, statements from some of the brothel clients, and playful newspaper letters that offer striking headlines such as: Roman amphorae beside frozen hake, Spanish government halting the return of football, Why are Spanish hairdressers so important, Japan is preparing for the arrival of UFOs. These elements invite visitors to consider how artifacts and narratives coexist to shape memory and meaning.
Between documentary and fiction
Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975) creates projects that transcend simple series, probing the provisional nature of image and reality. Trained as a documentary photographer, her work has sparked international conversations, with Afronauts opening a discourse on imagination and ambition in unexpected places. The project follows Zambia’s improbable space program and its yearning to reach beyond known limits, while grounded by human stories that keep the narrative intimate.
In 2014, a television inspiration influenced a later body of work. Mayen, a project from the mid-2010s, explores an Arctic expedition through a blend of factual and fictional elements. A collaboration with Bruno Morais in 2016 brought Midnight at the Crossroads to life, turning a continental gaze toward Africa with a critique of colonial perspectives, shown at a prominent Madrid venue.
Early exhibitions by Middel highlighted the commercial dynamics of the art market while preserving the integrity of documentary practice. The Perfect Man used a classic cinema piece to comment on labor and alienation, while a later project mined archival Magnum imagery to challenge the authority of documentary truth. The 2018 PhotoEspaña program framed Middel’s work within a broader conversation about the boundaries of reality and fiction, with curated selections that showcased the playful tension between image and narrative. This thread continues in subsequent shows, where the artist examines how sensationalism and seriousness coexist, sometimes in surprising ways.
National Photography Award recognitions and life experiences cross paths in Middel’s ongoing practice. The artist has lived in multiple places, collaborating with photographers in diverse environments. Recently, leadership at the Magnum agency has joined the narrative, tying together a history of photographic innovation and a forward-looking stance on documentary storytelling.