Cristina de Middel - Journey to the center
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About
"Journey to the Center" focuses on the migration route through Mexico. The photographic essay from Cristina de Middel mixed real and fictional phenomena, with an atmosphere and symbolism inspired by Jules Verne’s famous novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
With a language that combines straight documentary photography with constructed images and archival material, the narrative becomes multi-layered. Cristina de Middel develops images that encourage reflection in the viewer.
The migratory route through Central America is portrayed as a heroic and daring journey. Mexico, the setting for this adventure, is presented as the fascinating and extreme country that it is.
Cristina de Middel has been travelling for years with migrants on the train they call “the beast”, interviewing sicarios (hired killers), talking for hours with “coyotes” (clandestine smugglers) and police officers. By combining her own photographs with objects found in the desert and archive footage, she creates a multi-layered narrative.
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 the officially “Center of the World”. This epic journey is punctuated by the accounts of three migrants recounting their terrible journey and commentary by the artist. An afterword by Mexican journalist, Pedro Anza, illuminates the issues at stake and the human consequences of the United States’ obsession with closing its borders.
Her work is exhibited at Rencontres d’Arles 2024.
Hardcover book co-published by RM Editorial and Editions Textuel in 2024
Author: Cristina de Middel
Design: Maricris Herrera
Language: English edition with a Spanish insert
Product details
20 x 30 cm
