How does Cristina de Middel use tableaux photography in tandem with archival images to represent previous narratives?

“Ms. Middel shows how the medium promotes both fact and fiction”

Schwendener, M (Sept 5 2013)

Cristina de Middel: ‘The Afronauts’

New York: NY Times

The work that I will be focusing on is Cristina de Middel’s book called ‘Afronauts’. The book is based around a Zambian science teacher named Edwuard Makuka, who in 1964 decided to train the first African crew to travel to the moon. His plan was to use an aluminium rocket to put a woman, two cats and a missionary into Space. First the moon, then Mars, using a catapult system. He founded the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Astronomical Research to start training his Afronauts in his headquarters located only 20 miles from Lusaka. The plan was not well thought out as neither Zambia or any of the surrounding countries had the resources, finances or expertise to follow this programme through to completion.  The book was a finalist in the Paris Photo Fair Aperture First book award. The style of photography that she uses is half way between documentary photography and tableaux, because she uses real stories but then re-enacts them out using models and actors. Middel also uses a set of archival images of Zambian villages of the time to also show how ridiculous the idea of a space program to compete with the US and Russia was. The book is opened to a letter from one Zambian minister to another saying that according to Makuka America and Russia may lose the race to the moon.