War, violence, migrations—these recur as common threads in traditional journalism. Yet the work arrives with a second glance and a blush, a gaze that challenges what the viewer perceives through the camera’s lens. It presents images in a way that invites a different reading, one that I won’t pretend to fully share.
Letters to the Editor is the title of Cristina de Middel’s newest solo show, curated by the artist herself. Semiramis González opens this Thursday at the Canal de Isabel II Room in Madrid, where the exhibit will remain on view through January 14. It gathers a selection of photographs from notable series, alongside lesser-seen works, arranged to offer new connections between images that are not usually displayed together.
The Alicante-born photographer, who has led Magnum Photos since 2022, has spent a decade working in photojournalism. In this exhibition she reimagines the traditional concept behind a newspaper’s letters to the editor—the space where readers share opinions on published topics. De Middel keeps the door ajar for public voice, letting visitors express their own views and form their own conclusions as they move through the show.
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Throughout the exhibition, the National Photography Award winner presents work from several long-running projects, including Paula P.’s Life and Miracles (2009), which is being shown widely for the first time. Gentlemen’s Club (2015–2023) sits alongside newer bodies of work such as Journey to the Center (2015–2022) and the freshly produced Kabuler (2022), created with Lorenzo Meloni.
In Kabuler, Magnum photographers employ sections of a traditional magazine to craft a holistic view of Afghanistan, organized with an editorial cadence designed to temper sensational expectations and offer a steadier, more nuanced reading of life there.
Forbes named Cristina de Middel among the 100 most influential women in Spain
All these strands, along with depictions of the Taliban’s perspective on Afghanistan, the migratory journeys through Mexico toward the so-called center of the world (as in Verne’s novel), and the varied angles on prostitution—from a worker’s view to the lives surrounding sex work—are presented without judgment. The show also revisits the life and miracles of Paula P. and the market-driven realities faced by sex workers who agreed to be photographed. Gentlemen’s Club shifts the lens toward multiple viewpoints, inviting viewers to form their own opinions.
A scheduled interview with Cristina de Middel and Semiramis González will take place on Tuesday, October 17, via the ZOOM platform. The session will not be recorded or published on any other digital channel.
Valencia Community Award
The Alicante photographer also received another honor yesterday, adding to a long list of recognitions. This time, the Valencia Community Journalism Awards granted a professional career award in recognition of her work. The ceremony, organized by the CSIF union, also honored Javier Ivanyez in the Revelation Journalist category and Gustavo Clemente with the Journalist of the Year award in its fourteenth edition.
“Afronauts” is on view at Tate Modern in London
Christina de Middel participates in a group show at Tate Modern in London, contributing with her television series Afronauts, which was adapted into a photo book in 2012. The exhibition, A Common World: Contemporary African Photography, runs until January 14 and brings together more than thirty artists who explore Africa’s cultural and historical narratives through photographs, film, and other media.
Christina de Middel published Afronauts in 2012, a book that earned critical acclaim and helped earn her a nomination for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize in 2013. Tate Modern acquired the entire Afronauts series in 2018, along with Snap Fingers and Whistle (2013) and Poly-Spam (2009), among earlier works.