Cristina De Middel’s Journey to the Center, currently on view at the International Centre for the Image, Dublin, until 23 December, presents a compelling exploration of migration, myth and human resilience. Presented by PhotoIreland, the exhibition marks her return to the city a decade after the Irish premiere of The Afronauts. The series merges documentary photography with constructed imagery and archival material to create narratives that are at once political, poetic and conceptually playful. Rather than presenting migration solely as a crisis, De Middel reframes it as a journey of courage, endurance and imagination. Her approach encourages viewers to rethink the stories often circulated by media and official narratives, emphasizing both the heroism and the absurdity inherent in these travels. Through this lens, the exhibition transforms migration into a story of human perseverance and symbolic exploration.
The series traces the route from Tapachula on the Guatemalan border to Felicity, California, recasting it as an epic quest inspired by Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. Felicity’s designation as the “Center of the World” introduces a wryly ironic endpoint, highlighting the gap between expectation and reality and the dissonance between personal journeys and political frameworks. De Middel’s framing blends empathy with conceptual rigour, presenting migration as both a literal and symbolic odyssey. The photographs oscillate between documentary immediacy and surreal staging, creating a visual language that is simultaneously familiar and unsettling. In doing so, the exhibition invites reflection on the human and bureaucratic forces that shape movement, as well as the imaginative possibilities of storytelling within photography. This duality between realism and allegory defines the experience of the exhibition.
De Middel’s practice has consistently blurred the line between reportage and invention, and this exhibition continues that trajectory. Works such as Poor Innocent Friend (Inocente Pobre Amigo) illustrate her capacity to destabilise conventional documentary tropes. By incorporating staged compositions alongside archival fragments, she challenges assumptions about authenticity and the authority of images. Each photograph carries both aesthetic and ethical weight, prompting viewers to consider their own role in interpreting and understanding complex human experiences. The layered narrative structure mirrors the unpredictability and risk inherent in migration, allowing the audience to engage with the subject matter on multiple levels. This interplay of fiction, fact and metaphor is central to De Middel’s artistic enquiry.
Understanding the exhibition also requires context for De Middel’s career. Trained in journalism and fine arts, she spent a decade in photojournalism before moving toward more conceptual projects that question the conventions of documentary photography. The Afronauts (2012), her breakthrough project, reimagined Zambia’s little-known space programme with a blend of fact and invention, challenging notions of photographic truth. Since then, her work has maintained a critical engagement with both social and aesthetic concerns, addressing issues from migration to identity while resisting reductive representations. Her election as President of Magnum Photos from 2022 to 2025 and her ongoing support for emerging artists in Latin America reflect her influence within both artistic and institutional spheres. These experiences inform the conceptual rigor and humanitarian sensitivity evident in Journey to the Center.
The International Centre for the Image provides a fitting environment for this work. Its spacious, light-filled galleries allow the photographs to resonate, while the juxtaposition of documentary scenes, staged images and archival material emphasizes the layered nature of the narratives. Travellers are depicted moving along rail lines, resting beneath trees or navigating urban spaces, often framed against bureaucratic systems that shape their journeys. The installation emphasizes both the physical and symbolic dimensions of migration, creating a rhythm that alternates between stillness, tension and reflection. The spatial arrangement encourages audiences to linger, fostering an immersive understanding of the stories presented without prescribing interpretation. The exhibition balances narrative, metaphor and lived experience in equal measure.
De Middel’s work sits alongside that of other contemporary women artists redefining the possibilities of documentary photography. LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work, grounded in family and community, documents post-industrial landscapes in the United States with social critique and intimacy. Zineb Sedira’s films and installations explore migration across Europe and North Africa, blending personal history with archival material to examine displacement and identity. Paz Errázuriz, meanwhile, has spent decades collaborating with marginalised communities in Chile to produce portraits of profound empathy and social awareness. While their strategies differ, all three share De Middel’s commitment to challenging conventional narratives and highlighting lived human experience, reflecting a broader shift toward interpretive, layered approaches to contemporary photography.
Journey to the Center invites viewers to navigate migration as both lived reality and conceptual space. De Middel frames the journey with irony, empathy and careful observation, creating tension between hope, disappointment and resilience. The exhibition emphasizes the courage of those who traverse borders while showcasing the imaginative potential of photography to reveal unseen stories. Rather than offering simple resolutions, it encourages reflection on how images construct meaning. Through humor, allegory and visual rigor, De Middel transforms migration into a narrative of human endurance, political awareness and poetic insight, leaving a lasting impression that resonates well beyond the gallery walls.
Journey to the Center is at International Centre for the Image, Dublin until 23 December: image.museum
Words: Simon Cartwright
Image Credits:
1&5. “Una piedra en el camino” from the series Journey to the Center, 2021. Cristina De Middel /
Magnum Photos.
2. “Inocente Pobre Amigo” from the series Journey to the Center, 2021. Cristina De Middel /
Magnum Photos.
3. “Volver Volver” from the series Journey to the Center, 2021. Cristina De Middel / Magnum
Photos.
4. “La Puerta Negra” from the series Journey to the Center, 2021. Cristina De Middel / Magnum
Photos.
