Flor y Florecer
2025
Marks of Memory Series
Mixed Media
32 x 37.5 in (81.3 x 195.25 cm)
Limited edition prints also available
Cristina Mittermeier on the Marks of Memory Series:
Cristina Goettsch Mittermeier’s mixed-media collages emerge from a life lived across borders. Shaped by migration, displacement, and an intentional return to Mexico, her country of origin, these works explore belonging, identity, and the quiet endurance of women whose lives unfold within systems not built for them.
Each piece begins with one of Mittermeier’s photographs, often portraying women whose dignity persists despite historical erasure, inequality, or marginalization. Onto these images, she layers hand-cut floral forms made from personal documents gathered over a lifetime—passports, birth certificates, visas, and legal records. Stripped of their bureaucratic authority, these papers are transformed into symbols of resilience, growth, and survival.
The flowers act as both offering and reclamation. They soften the rigidity of official records without erasing them, asserting authorship over narratives shaped by control, permission, and judgment. In giving flowers back to women and children whose stories are often told for them—or not at all—Mittermeier creates a gesture of care, recognition, and quiet exchange.
Biography:
A virtuous mind and voice in conservation photography and one of the most influential female photographers in the world, Cristina Mittermeier began her career as a Marine Biologist working in her native Mexico.
For the past twenty-five years, she has dedicated herself to inspiring a global audience to care about the delicate balance between human well-being and healthy ecosystems.
Cristina's work has exhibited at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, The Miller Gallery in Cincinnati, The Paul Nicklen Gallery in New York, Xposure in the UAE , Art Basel Miami, Terras de Salitre/Mar de Mares Festival in Santiago, The Museum of Plastic Pop-Up in New York, The United Nations Headquarters in association with Disney and Girl Up, and at Fotografiska in Stockholm, Sweden.
Cristina is the co-founder of SeaLegacy, the founder and former president of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a board member for the WILD Foundation, an advisor on two major Conservation International programs, an esteemed public speaker, and a recipient of multiple internationally recognized awards for her photography. In 2016, Cristina received the Imaging Award for Photographers who Give Back and in 2018 was acknowledged as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year.
She is the editor of 26 conservation photography books and her Fine Art Coffee Table book, Amaze, is in its second printing.
Today, Cristina is the Co-founder of the conservation society, SeaLegacy, a National Geographic contributing photographer, a Sony Artisan of Imagery and the editor of 26 coffee table books on conservation issues. She is the first female photographer to reach 1M followers on Instagram and was a 2018 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. She is acknowledged as one of the most Influential Women in Ocean Conservation in 2018 by Ocean Geographic, and The Men's Journal recently named her as one of the 18 Most Adventurous Women in the World.
Cristina is a pioneer in the use of powerful and emotive imagery to propel conservation efforts. Born in Mexico, Cristina is a marine biologist, photographer, and writer who specializes in issues surrounding fisheries and indigenous cultures.