GLENDALIS: THE LIFE AND WORLD OF A YOUNG Format: Hardcover

Angela Cappetta's Glendalis captures the life of a youngest daughter of a Puerto Rican family in an unfiltered portrayal of family life and rites of passage in pre-gentrified Lower East Side.

Glendalis by photographer Angela Cappetta explores the multi-generational story of a family living in a pre-gentrified Stanton Street tenement. Through protagonist Glendalis, the youngest family member and messenger, Cappetta reflects on her own upbringing within a bustling, complex family.

As a Gen X child in New York, Cappetta juxtaposes the apparent serenity captured in the photographs with the harsh realities of urban life—crime, incarceration, and community trauma. The book offers a candid glimpse into the cultural fabric of the Lower East Side, portraying intimate family moments alongside the challenges they face.

Embedded deeply in the project, Cappetta contemplates the evolving nature of relationships and the solitary path of a documentary photographer. Glendalis is a poignant narrative of familial bonds, community resilience, and the profound impact of personal history on both artist and subject.

Angela Cappetta is an American photographer. Cappetta has Italian heritage and had a multi-generational upbringing in New Haven, Connecticut. In the 1990s, she often got up early in the morning to walk the neighborhood of her home in the Alphabet City area of Manhattan and photograph with a 6x9 format camera. Her work includes diaristic self-portraits. Cappetta received a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2000, and completed fellowships at the MacDowell Colony in 2000, 2004 and 2010. Prints from her Glendalis series are held in the collection of CPW and in the collection of the New York Public Library (as of August 2018).