The Afronauts
Cristina de Middel
Self Published
English
Softcover
Signed, Limited Edition of 1000 (Yellow Band Missing)
88 pages
235 x 175 mm
2019
ISBN 978846158596
Zambia 1964, the rather eccentric school teacher Edward Makuka Nkoloso single-handedly started a space program. Its aim was to put the first African on the moon, thereby joining the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Due to a lack of funding, both by the Zambian Government and the United Nations, and because one of the astronauts, a teenage girl, became pregnant, the short-lived program came to an early end. It is a lesser-known part of the African history which unfortunately mostly has been dominated by wars, violence and hunger.
About the Artist
Cristina de Middel is a photographer whose work investigates photography’s ambiguous relationship to truth. Blending documentary and conceptual photographic practices, she plays with reconstructions and archetypes that blur the border between reality and fiction. After a successful career as a photojournalist, de Middel stepped outside of the photojournalistic gaze. De Middel’s work shows that fiction can serve as the subject of photography just as well as facts can, highlighting that our expectation that photography must always make reference to reality is flawed.Cristina De Middel has exhibited extensively internationally and has received numerous awards and nominations, including PhotoFolio Arles 2012, the Deutsche Börse Prize, POPCAP’ 13, and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in New York.
(source https://www.lensculture.com/cristina-de-middel)
lademiddel.com
Further Reading
https://www.magnumphotos.com/shop/collections/the-afronauts-by-cristina-de-middel/
