Anne Casale, the photographer of the new exhibit and book “New Perspectives: Dominican Republic,” speaks at the opening reception at City College of New York’s Amsterdam Plaza. “It’s a big country,” explained Casale. “I’m not done photographing it.”
Story by Sherry Mazzocchi and Debralee Santos
Photos by Sherry Mazzocchi
When Pahola Capellan walked by a large photograph of the ruins of La Isabella, she instantly recognized it.
The photo, taken from the air, showed the faint outline of the ancient ruins of the first church established in the Dominican Republic.
Excited, the CCNY student told her friend, “That’s where I’m from—near that town.”
Capellan, along with dozens of others, was at the City College of New York (CCNY) campus on 137th Street, admiring an outdoor photographic exhibit by the French photographer Anne Casale. The exhibit shows only a few of the 400 hundred images in Casale’s book, New Perspectives: Dominican Republic.
The exhibit and the book, which is divided into 9 chapters (Reflections of Light; Coasts; Heights; Plains; History; City; People; Tourism; and Work) were conceived as a collaboration between Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), a non-profit organization founded in the Dominican Republic by Dr. Leonel Fernández, the country’s current president, and its sister institution, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD). The project is intended to serve as a point of reference and a learning tool on the diversity of the people, topography, terrain and ecology of the Caribbean country.
The genesis of the book and exhibit came when Casale, a renowned photographer, was traveling by helicopter in the Dominican Republic with Natasha Despotovic, the GFDD’s executive director.
“We were blessed to see it [the Dominican Republic] from the sky,” Depotovic told the audience at the exhibit’s opening this past Tues., Sept. 13th at City College at the exhibit’s opening. She has described the experience as “a dialogue between the Earth and the sky.”
As they flew above the exquisite landscape, Casale snapped photos of the island.
Thousands of them. For more than three years, she took photos from a helicopter.
“My pilot,” she said, “was very good.”
Casale, born in Colmar, France, has lived in Puerto Plata for more than 20 years. She explained that when foreigners come to the Dominican Republic, they often only get a tourist’s perspective of the island and rarely experience the richly diverse beauty it has to offer.
Anne Casale, whose work has appeared in the “National Geographic,” among other publications, shares a moment of laughter with the audience at the opening reception for her new work, in which she took thousands of aerial shots of the Dominican Republic. “My pilot was very good,” she explained.
Carol Espinal, a Bronx resident who was also in attendance, agreed.
“There is so much to see, so much beyond the limitations of a resort or a hotel,” she said. A native of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, Espinal was thrilled to see so many distinct representations of the country she still considers home – in spite of her decades in New York. The exhibition had earlier this year debuted in Santiago and impressed many of her relatives, she said.
“Gorgeous,” was her assessment. “Absolutamente.”
Casale captured images from all over the island. The exhibit features photos of the Dominican Carnival, the Yamasa mountain range, the Valdesia and Jigűey dams in San Cristobal, women washing clothes in the Masacre River, the shores of Lake Enriquillo, flamingos flying over Marigo Lagoon as well as the Malecôn Center in Santo Domingo.
“It’s a big country,” explained Casale. “I’m not done photographing it.”
Dr. Ramona Hernández, director of the City University of New York’s Dominican Studies Institute, said that it was very appropriate for CCNY to host the exhibit because of the college’s large Dominican student population. “These images truly capture the cultural and physical beauty of the country from the air,” she said.
The photos brought back treasured memories for many. A security guard, who declined to give his name, said he remembered visiting the Limón waterfall in Samaná as a child.
“I never knew the name of that place,” he said, gazing at a photo of a gigantic spray of water cascading down a lush green hillside.
“And there it is, right in front of me.”
Capellan, a CCNY student, said the photos really reflect what she sees in her country that most other people never see. She said she felt that too often the focus was on negative images of her homeland.
“This,” said Capellan, in explaining the significance of exhibit, “shows why we Dominicans love [our country] so much, and why we are so proud of it.”
To hear photographer Anne Casale speak on her experience documenting the Dominican Republic by helicopter, please go to: http://bit.ly/MTvid003.
The “New Perspectives: Dominican Republic” exhibit is on display at the City College of New York (CCNY) campus plaza at 137th St. and Amsterdam Avenue until October 31st. For more information on the exhibit and the book, visit http://www.newperspectivesdominicanrepublic.com.
See below for photos from the exhibit.
Aerial shot of La Bahia de Yuma. Courtesy of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD)
Aerial shot of Lago Enriquillo, Provincia Independencia, the largest lentic water body in the Central Caribbean region. Courtesy of GFDD
Aerial shot of the Limon Waterfall in the province of Samaná. Courtesy of GFDD
Aerial shot of the Yamasa Mountain Range in the Monte Plata province; it is one of five mountain ranges in the Dominican Republic, and is composed of volcanic rock. Courtesy of GFDD
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