Magnum’s Cristina de Middel says AI is real danger to photojournalism

In this special edition of European Lens we talk to Spanish visual storyteller and artist Cristina de Middel who presides over the Magnum Photo Agency, the legendary collective set up in 1947 after the Second World War.

Over the past two years Cristina de Middel, who hails from Alicante, has been at the helm of Magnum, the photography agency widely considered to be the most important in the world.
To mark its remarkable role in capturing so many of the world’s key events and the work of great women, Magnum was given this year’s Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, one of Spain’s most prestigious prizes.
Magnum represents some of the world’s most renowned photographers, who share the pioneering vision of its founders in combining journalism, art and storytelling.
For more than 70 years Magnum has been creating the highest quality photographic content and its library is also a living archive updated regularly with new work from across the globe.
Euronews Culture met Cristina de Middel at the Asturias Awards ceremony in Oviedo last month at the Hotel La Reconquista, where she stayed ahead with other honourees and the Spanish Royal Family. On the way to the hotel, she was stopped in the street several times and congratulated. “The affection of the people of Oviedo is incredible, that’s what I’ll never take for granted,” she said.
The jury praised the social work carried out by the Magnum Agency through photography. “It is a call to attention to the importance of having confidence in images, we are like the anchor in an increasingly visual society that needs to be able to trust images”, says De Middel.
There were many creators of her agency, among them the couple known as Robert Capa – an alias used by the photographers Endre Friedmann and Gerda Taro.** The pair built a reputation for their ‘war photography’ something De Middel now feels is “a profession that is almost in danger of extinction”.
“There are fewer and fewer means, less money to tell stories with the depth they deserve,” she explains. “The world is becoming much more complex to explain at the same time that there are far fewer means to do so,” De Middel laments, also raising a point about one of the greatest dangers facing this sector: disinformation or false images created with artificial intelligence (AI).
“A 15-year-old with a computer can now easily create years of research, that is worrying for photography”, although she believes that “it is even more worrying for the audience”, and a new challenge for journalism.
De Middel has become a true pioneer, not only as an artistic and documentary photographer, but also in her role at the head of a large company. As in many fields, women have had a harder time in this one too.
“Things are changing”, although she is self-critical and conscious of being president of an agency “that has less than 10% representation of women”. She believes that this has to change, but recognises that “it is a slow process, the trend is good but it is going very slowly”.
To be where she is, she has had to give up many things: “I am not married, I don’t have children, I am 50 years old and I have bought a house now… I have always prioritised my career”.
This year’s Princess of Asturias Awards also recognised the role and tireless efforts of other women such as badminton player Carolina Marín and Iranian cartoonist Marjane Satrapi. And, for the first time, Princess Leonor was in charge of concluding the ceremony.
You can watch our full interview with Cristina de Middel in the player above.