At that point, De Middel became interested in nature documentaries about the oceans and seas, about how complex ecosystems can exist invisibly, away from human contact.. “I decided to use a coral reef as a way of expressing a community, an ecosystem where everything makes sense; there are big fish and fat fish and small fish and really small fish that use the big fish as protection,” she says. “I wanted to explain that this is a community with its own rules and ways of working – most of the time. I found a way of applying underwater documentaries to favelas.”
Lastly, de Middel is using the event to launch Jan Mayen, another example of how ‘reality’ can be constructed and created. The outcome of a long relationship with London’s Archive of Modern Conflict, the series came to being after Timothy Prus shared with her an archival picture series “he had found somewhere.”
“He asked me if I might be interested, and obviously I was,” de Middel says.
Prus’ series dates back to 1911. It depicts a group of wealthy British tourists setting out on an Arctic expedition to rediscover the island of Jan Mayen, which lies off the eastern coast of Greenland. The North Pole had only recently been discovered, credited for a time to US Navy engineer Robert Peary. Peary claimed to have reached the Pole on 6 April 1909, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit men. He was treated like a hero, and Arctic exploration became the single most fashionable thing for those with means and ambition.
In this context, a group of wealthy German and British supposed scientists decided to “re-discover” Jan Mayen, an island whalers had used for years but had not yet been studied scientifically.
“These first valiant explorers opened a way for secondary heroes to prove their courage,” de Middel says. “It was the beginning of extreme tourism.”
The expedition turned out to be a shambles. “They sailed, they argued, they fought, they forgot their compass, they ran out of coal, they made it to the island, but the boat was too big and they could not land,” de Middel says.
After realising the expedition was a hopeless failure, a cinematographer amongst the crew convinced the rest of the team to stop on the shores of Iceland. They would stage the landing of Jan Mayen, using the pictures as proof, back home, of their prowess and daring.
Using the original archive and based on a script by the original expedition’s cinematographer, Cristina de Middel staged her own series of photos on Scotland’s Isle of Skye. The two sets of images were then blended together and hand-tinted.
““History is written by winners and the cinematographer in the crew was well aware of that,” de Middel says. “I decided to stage his staging.”
It’s a remarkable amount of work, a moment of serendipity when years of hard work suddenly coming to fruition. Will she ever slow down, I ask. Will photography ever cease to become a game to her, one she finds hopelessly addictive?
“Maybe I’ve became an obsessive person,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. ““My life exploded,” she says. “And I’ve tried very hard not to look back. I’m trying very hard to take the chance given to me, and to be as hyperactive as possible. So we shall see.”
See Cristina’s work at INSTITUTE or check out her personal website.
