Journey To The Center by Cristina De Middel at International Centre For The Image

A decade after the Irish premiere of The Afronauts during PhotoIreland Festival, De Middel returns to Dublin with another premiere of her latest work.

Overview

Journey To The Center is a series that borrows the atmosphere and structure of Jules Verne’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth to present the Central American migration route across Mexico as a heroic and daring journey, rather than a runaway.

In this version of the journey, the starting point is Tapachula, the Southern border of Mexico with Guatemala, and the journey ends in Felicity, a small town in California that is officially the “Center of the World”. The absurdity of this landmark, from where you can see the border fence, just adds a layer of dystopic disappointment and becomes the perfect colophon for a contemporary version of a heroic jest, where the final destination is little less than a roadside tourist attraction.

With a language that combines straight documentary photography with constructed images and archival material, the narrative becomes multi-layered in order to complete the simplistic approach that media and official reports provide to the complex phenomenon of migration.

About The Artist

Cristina De Middel is a Spanish photographer whose work explores the ambiguous ground between documentary and conceptual practices. Trained in both journalism and fine arts, she gained international recognition with The Afronauts (2012). This self-published photobook reimagined a failed Zambian space program with a blend of fact and fiction. Since then, her practice has consistently challenged the conventions of photographic storytelling, using staged imagery, archival materials, and subtle surrealism to reframe dominant narratives.

De Middel’s projects often engage with sociopolitical issues—ranging from migration and conflict to identity and myth—yet she avoids reductive portrayals, favoring complexity, irony, and metaphor. Her approach reflects a deep interest in questioning the reliability of photography and the responsibilities of visual authorship.

She became a member of Magnum Photos in 2017 and served as the agency’s President from 2022 to 2025, making her one of the few women to lead the historic collective. In addition to her photographic work, De Middel maintains a strong commitment to collaborative and educational initiatives, often working with local communities and artists across the globe.

Her work has been exhibited widely and is held in major international collections. Through both image and narrative, De Middel continues to redefine the boundaries of contemporary documentary photography.