Interiors of an Extended Family

Walking through the market filled allies near my house in Santo Domingo, there was a woman I wanted to photograph who insisted on only being photographed while holding an eggplant. Her name was Rosa Santana. As I got her to put down the eggplant for at least one frame, we began to talk as she grabbed my arm and started pushing me through people and under dripping clotheslines into what I did not realize were homes. These homes were behind service counters, through other homes, and up cracked pavement. These were the homes of her entire extended family. She was showing me each member of her family that lived in the area, asking me to please photograph them. I tried to explain that I was leaving and had no way of getting the pictures to her, but it did not matter, she wanted each member documented in somebody's history. This is one of her daughters who I met. Her name is long gone now, but this is her wall of portraits of her children. An actual photograph of her son, and two dolls representing each of her daughters. Perhaps this is why the pictures were so important, because this is all they have, and at least someone will have an actual image of their children.

These images are of two of her daughters (Maria is the seated woman in the first photograph).