The photographer Cristina de Middel, the first Spanish to occupy the presidency of Magnum

"I've never been president of anything, but if I work hard and respect Magnum's role and legacy, I'm sure it will work out."

With this tweet that sums up her usual self-confidence well, the Spanish photographer Cristina de Middel has announced that she is the new president of the famous agency founded 75 years ago by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, among other gods of photography.

The historic decision —it is the first time that an author of Spanish nationality has been appointed to this position— was taken this Thursday by the agency at its annual general meeting, held in New York, which was attended by the members of Magnum.

The agency has held different events these days, such as conferences or a book fair, to commemorate precisely the fact that three quarters of a century ago Capa ordered a large bottle of champagne, at a lunch at MoMA,

whose size gave him the idea of ​​the name for the agency that revolutionized photography.

Magnum was born as a cooperative in which its members could defend their rights as authors and carry out the work they considered without having to depend on what the big newspapers decided to do with their images.

“I feel honored and also aware of the responsibility.

I hope to be able to continue with the great work that the previous presidents have done and that it manages to bring new ideas and enthusiasm to the group”, added De Middel, winner of the National Photography Prize in 2017 and installed for a few years on horseback between Salvador de Bahia (Brazil) and Mexico City.

The former president of Magnum, Olivia Arthur, has taken over with these words: “I am delighted, I know that you will continue with the mission of leading us with your energy and consideration”.

At its general meeting, which rotates between New York, Paris and London, Magnum photographers and staff discuss, among other things, the business model and potential new hires.

More information

The innovative photographic language of Cristina de Middel wins the National

Graduated in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, De Middel (Alicante, 47 years old) joined Magnum only five years ago, in 2017, sponsored by the master of color Martin Parr.

The intricate admission process at Magnum makes its applicants go through three phases in which they must prove merit with their work: nominees, associates and, finally, full members.

At the meeting in New York, De Middel was elected a full member and, at the same time, president.

The new head of Magnum, who at first was going to be a cartoonist, began as a photojournalist in her city and working for NGOs for about ten years, until 2010, already participating in some collective exhibitions.

However, her experience in the press, with which she has always been very critical, was a disappointment, so she took a new direction, towards artistic photography.

Middel

_

It arrived now 10 years ago, in 2012, when she achieved great success with her book

, which also made her known outside of Spain.

In that work she told in images the story of Zambia's failed space program in the 1960s through scenic recreations.

An ingenious project that allowed her to “play with the limits between reality and fiction”, she said at the time, and in which she took an interest in Martin Parr to open the doors of Magnum to her years later.

De Middel herself had edited the book, which contributed to the rise of the photobook in Spain, which she attributed "to a generational change, the few opportunities to work and the collapse of official support."

One of the photographs of 'Afronautas', the best known photobook by Cristina de Middel.Cristina de Middel

Afronauts

is the best example of De Middel's photography, in which he enjoys establishing an ambiguous relationship with the truth, "through reconstructions that start from the premise that the media actually reduce the real understanding of the world", underlines the Magnum website about this author.

An argument that she has always presided over in her way of conceiving her photography.

This is how she declared it on the occasion of an exhibition in Madrid in 2016: “People should not swallow what the press says, but should ask themselves questions”.

An admirer of the films of Ridley Scott, Jim Jarmusch or Wes Anderson, who influence her vision of the art of the image, she has Joan Fontcuberta or Diane Arbus, among others, as references.

In 2015, De Middel repeated the scheme of

with

another amusing proposal in which, based on real documents, he reconstructed with photos a trip that a group of Germans and British undertook in 1911 to explore a supposed island between Greenland and Iceland. .

To do this, the photographer and a group of collaborators staged her own staging on a Scottish island.

When he was awarded the National Photography Award in 2017, the jury highlighted "the national and international recognition achieved through his works, in which he rethinks the limits of the reality of photographic language, while innovating in the field of photography books. photography, giving it a new dimension as a total work of art”.

At the end of that year, she presented her photobook

, about masculinity in India, and in 2018 she was the guest curator of the PHotoEspaña festival, in which she organized six exhibitions that shared the vindication of playfulness, something that always emerges from her conversations.

Since then her main long-term work is

in which she portrays male clients of prostitution in different countries.

Photography of the work 'The Perfect Man'.Cristina de Middel