These photos capture what it’s like to grow up on the Lower East Side

Certain family structures remain the same throughout different generations and cultures, regardless of location or background. Having grown up in a Mediterranean multi-generational household back in the 1990s, American documentary photographer Angela Cappetta began naturally photographing different families with similar family dynamics to her own. On one of her early morning walks in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, Cappetta came across one Puerto Rican family in particular who, unbeknownst to her at the time, she would spend the next decade photographing. 

Released this week by L’Artiere, Glendalis: The Life and World of a Youngest Daughter is a photo book documenting this same family, focusing on the youngest daughter, Glendalis, as the nucleus of both the project and the family. As a youngest daughter herself, Cappetta knew first-hand the experience of being the family member who can so easily slip through the cracks, while simultaneously being aware of everything happening in the household. “[You can] get away with murder, but you’re under a microscope,” Capetta says. “My mother always told me ‘you were very independent. I didn’t have to do a lot with you.’”

Throughout the 112-page book, we observe Glendalis grow from a young child to a young woman. Proms, birthdays, quinceaneras, time spent with grandparents and moments of normal quotidian life are all reflected in the pages. While it could be easy to classify the series as a ‘coming of age’ story – an idea Cappetta rejects – it is so much more than that. Instead, she describes it as a depiction of “how a person evolves in ways that are visible and invisible”.

Throughout the book, context clues allude to other realities families would face in a big city during this time – including crime, financial instability and incarceration. “No family is immune to trauma,” Cappetta acknowledges. Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, at a time when it had “more murders per capita than Detroit and DC combined”, the tough aspects of the family’s reality were not a shock for the photographer. When I ask her about the parallels between her own upbringing and that of the subject, she pauses to reflect. “I’ve never thought about it because I am accustomed to being in high-risk situations, it did not really even affect me.” While there is a mystery surrounding Glendalis herself, there seems to be an unspoken connection that allowed Capetta to capture moments that would have otherwise been missed. Moments of friction, told through fleeting looks and expressions, offer real insight into the family’s life. 

As well as documenting Glendalis’ family, the images also offer an authentic look into the Lower East Side prior to the gentrification, though that was not quite the intention. “Every project should be a bit of a time capsule,” says Cappetta. “When you’ve got it all done, it should really be a reflection of a period.” She adds that she lives by American street photographer Garry Winogrand’s philosophy that “every image is a new fact”, allowing each image to live on as its own piece of art. 

Throughout our conversation, Cappetta keeps matters of the family private but speaks about the work with a heartwarming fondness. “My greatest wish is that somebody is able to take whatever they need to take from [the book],” she explains. “There’s a painting in MoMa I go visit and I just sit in front of it sometimes because I need to sit in front of it. I just take time to sit, breathe and understand it. I think people need to have experiences of art in their own personal way, whatever it is for them.”

Glendalis: The Life and World of a Youngest Daughter is available to purchase via L’Artiere here. Head to the gallery above to see some selects from the book.