A visual exploration of excess in territories that are more exposed to environmental issues and less prepared to its consequences.

Cristina de Middel probably needs no introduction. Born in Spain in 1975, she shot to fame in 2012 with her self-published book The Afronauts. Visualising Zambia’s failed 1960s space programme via staged scenes and setups, it was a very different way of showing Africa and a playful provocation of documentary photography and its limits. Perhaps surprisingly, it was created after she’d spent ten years working as a photojournalist.

“I consider myself an documentary photographer but in a very loose way,” she tells BJP. “I try to explain with images my opinion on the world we live in. The opinion part is important as I believe truth can only be reached by the exposure to many different opinions. The more opinions you consume, the closer you get to anything true…at least when it comes to understanding what is going on in the world. Cristina de Middel