Cristina de Middels best shot – recreating Zambias space programme | Guardian: theguardian/artanddesign/2014/jun/11/my-best-shot-cristina-de-middel-zambia-space-programme In 2010, I left my job as a staff photographer for a Spanish paper. Id been at the same place for six years and felt like a robot. I was shooting the same stories over and over again, and my pictures would always be used in the same way. After a while in news, you realise everything – apart from breaking stories – is cyclical. I wasnt experimenting and I wasnt enjoying myself. So I took a years sabbatical and said to myself: Instead of complaining, why dont you try to prove them wrong? Why dont you do a story that you think is important and tell it in your own way? If it doesnt work, then stop complaining. I started researching true stories people dont believe and fake stories they do. If you play around with reality, it gives a completely different dimension to the idea of photography as a document. Normally, photography is understood as being true: we assume nothing is manipulated, especially if its in a newspaper. One day, on a trawl of the internet, I came across a YouTube interview with Edward Makuka Nkoloso, leader of the short-lived Zambian space programme in the 1960s. I couldnt believe it was real – then I realised I was in the very situation I wanted to set up. I became aware of my own prejudice, in thinking Africa couldnt possibly go to space. It also brought home the fact that the continent is often treated unfairly by the media: most news pictures we see from Africa show war and suffering, even though there are other things going on. In 1964, when Zambia gained its independence from the UK, Nkoloso, a science teacher, decided to prove that his country was just as important as the worlds leading nations. It was the height of the space race and he decided Zambia should take part. He designed a rocket and a catapult system to launch it, which he tested on Zambian Independence Day. He recruited 10 men and one woman as astronauts. He wanted the woman – and two cats – to be the first to walk on the moon. Training took place on a farm near the capital, Lusaka. Nkoloso asked for £7m of funding from Unesco, but didnt get it. That was one reason why the programme didnt have a chance. Then the woman became pregnant by one of the other astronauts and her parents came to take her back to their village. And that marked the end of the space programme. People I have spoken to who met Nkoloso say he was very charismatic: a dreamer who took his project very seriously, maybe even with the same serious approach Nasa and the Soviet Union had. He went on to become an important personality in the politics of Zambia and even received a state funeral. I found a location on the outskirts of Madrid. I needed a place people could associate with Africa. The rubbish dump was visually attractive and helped me play with the misconception that Africa is full of rubbish dumps. I managed to find a model with afro hair – it didnt matter that he was actually Brazilian. And I was very lucky with the costume: a friend was working on a Spanish movie called The Cosmonaut and had a real Russian spacesuit I could borrow. There is very little documentation from this moment in Zambias history, so I had to figure out my own way to tell the story. I used family photo albums from the 1960s as a visual reference. The pictures are all square and de-saturated, with a pink tone. Some of the pictures that featured in the series, called The Afronauts, were actually old ones taken on trips to the US and Italy. Thats the great thing about staging: you can play with images and even recycle old ones. The point I wanted to make was not that the project failed because it was the work of a poor African country, but that Nkoloso tried and believed it was possible. It would never happen in Europe: people would say there was no point in even trying. But it happened in Africa because there is a different – and beautiful – attitude there. CV Born: Spain, 1975 Studied: Fine arts in Valencia and photography in Oklahoma. Influences: 1960s sc-fi films, afro-futurism, and Tin Tin. Duane Michaels and Diane Arbus. High point: Meeting Martin Parr. He completely changed my career. Low point: People around me have changed because my life has moved on. Top tip: Always note down any crazy ideas you have, because ideas that come in a free way are often really good. • The Afronauts is at the Pinta art fair until 15 June. Earls Court Exhibiton Centre, London SW5.
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:53:32 +0000
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