Photographer Cristina de Middel is famous for the types of documentary work that she does. So for Magnum’s Eden sale, you might have an idea of what she’d offer up even before you look at the image. But then, you look at what she’s offering, and you’d probably be confused. I surely was. So we had to ask her what her photo was about.
The lead image is by Cristina de Middel and is used with permission. This photo is available for purchase as part of the current Magnum Square Print Sale that ends on October 27, 2024.
The image illustrates in a very naïve way the mutations that species, especially fish, suffer from water contamination. By adding a human element to the fish’s body, I translate the impact that we, as a society, have on our environment. If Eden was the untouched paradise, the primal ecosystem, in this image, I show the effects of human action. I know it is not the traditional image one would expect to see addressing environmental issues, but this is precisely what I want to do: break the conventional narrative of guilt and frustration with an image that is inviting and yet carries a strong message. Nobody would want to look at a picture of a dead fish or a polluted river, but a fish with a human ear sparks curiosity, and that´s the beginning of attention.
Cristina de Middel
I very much admire the way that Cristina de Middel executes this photo. It’s expressive art with intention that makes us think. Good art should make us feel something. And we’re often curious about something because it is beautiful to us and we don’t understand it. But even now that I understand where Cristina is coming from, I’m still in-like with this image.
When I first saw the photo, I wasn’t totally sure what to think. For me, it brought about the idea of poisoned fish from the show Batman: The Animated Series when Joker had poisoned the water supply and made all the fish have giant smiles. However, this fish has a giant ear. It, obviously, is the effect of human involvement. But what’s more important is that we’ve affected everything.
This is why I’m so intrigued by when landscape photographers say that they want to shoot photos where there is no evidence of people interfering with the area. But that’s simply just not possible. Humanity has manipulated everything on this planet. What we do to the oceans affect everything even on the deepest parts of the sea floor.
Cristina’s print is an ironic joke. However, I’d even pay more money to see it be a mixed-media piece with the ear attached to the fish. These days, that’s how photographs are really standing out on their own as pieces of art. But the Square Print Sale is essentially the Affordable Art Fair for Magnum Photos and it happens a few times a year.
Where other photographers are encapsulating beauty, Cristina is bringing us back to reality and science instead of dreams and magic.