1975, is a Spanish-Belgian photographer, documentary photographer, and artist. Born in Alicante, Spain, she studied photography at the University of Oklahoma, earned a master's degree in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, and completed postgraduate studies in photojournalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. For nearly a decade she worked as a photojournalist for Spanish newspapers and organizations including the Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières before turning her focus to personal projects.

She gained international recognition with the self-published photobook The Afronauts (2012), inspired by the little-known Zambian space program of the 1960s. Combining documentary strategies with staged imagery, the project examined the relationship between photography, narrative, and ideas of truth. The book became a turning point in her career, earning an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography and a nomination for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.

Since then, she has developed a body of work that moves between documentary photography and fiction, often questioning photographic authority and established narratives. Her photobooks include Party (2013), This is What Hatred Did (2015), Cucurrucucú (2016), The Perfect Man (2017), Jungle Check (2018), Midnight at the Crossroads (2020), Gentlemen’s Club (2023), The Kabuler (2023), and Journey to the Center (2024). Photobook publishing has remained central to her practice, with many projects produced through her own imprint, This Book is True.

In 2017 she became a nominee member of Magnum Photos, was elected a full member in 2022, and the same year became the first Spanish photographer to serve as president of the agency. Her work is held in collections including Tate, and she lives and works between Mexico, Brazil, and Spain.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), English edition. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_de_Middel