Cataratas. Cristina de Middel

SELTZ by Ritter Ferrer presents, on the occasion of Barcelona Gallery Weekend, the exhibition ‘Cataratas’ by renowned photographer and visual artist Cristina de Middel (Alicante, 1975), recipient of the National Photography Prize and former president of Magnum Photos.

Cataratas offers a critical reflection on the way we see—or believe we see—the world, particularly in relation to Africa. A cataract clouds vision, blurs outlines, and turns looking into an uncertain act. In a present saturated with images, where photography has lost its aura of truth and now floats between overexposure and suspicion, de Middel embraces blur as part of the creative process.

The exhibition is structured around a selection of works from several of the artist’s iconic series—The Afronauts, Midnight at the Crossroads, Funmilayo, Mirador, and This is What Hatred Did—which challenge colonial imaginaries, dominant media narratives, and the stereotypes that have historically constrained the representation of the African continent.

Far from offering definitive answers, these images act as fragmentary gestures, open visual questions that point to the limits of our perspective. The “cataract” in the title alludes both to cultural opacity and to the relentless torrent of images that shape our perception. In this context, accepting that limit becomes the first step toward seeing—and understanding—differently.