Photographer Angela Cappetta’s latest monograph is an ode to shared experience and the Lower East Side. Charting the growth of the youngest daughter of a multigenerational Puerto Rican family, Glendalis: The Life and World of a Youngest Daughter pays homage the photographer’s own experience of growing up in New Haven and experiencing the racial and economic divides parallelled in Glendalis’ New York homestead.
Charting Glendalis’ journey from young girl to woman, Cappetta’s images are doused in emotion, capturing the resilience and strength exhibited by their subject in daily life. Highlighting issues of crime, incarceration and economic instability, the study is an authentic portrayal of the issues that have plagued inner city life throughout history and in the modern day.
Despite the personal element of the project, the beauty of the book also lies in its universality. Documenting family dynamics, community and growing up, anyone who sees the images will find something to relate to. Cappetta’s intimate style of photography, which sees her document her subjects in their private spaces like the kitchen or the bedroom, encourages a connection between those looking at the photos and those in them. Glendalis’ relationship with those around her is framed by her experience of girlhood, as her childhood hair is braided by a circle of young adults or she heads off to prom with a frustrated look greeting the fussing she is receiving from all directions.
Moving past mere imagery, the story Cappetta tells about Glendalis and her world reverberates off the walls of the tenement where she lives and beyond, building a bridge between the intimacy and universality of growing up. The 112-page book can be purchased through fine bookstores and online with global shipping from L’Artiere.
Photography courtesy of L’Artiere.
