© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42" 

Alfonso Bricegno’s La 42 long-term photographic project is eveloped in Capotillo, a neighborhood of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. The work moves beyond the narratives of violence and exclusion that have come to define the area. Rather than imposing a definitive portrait of the territory, Bricegno embraces the partial, subjective, and necessarily incomplete nature of representation. 

© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42"

© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42" 

We experience photography today at an increasingly accelerated pace, moving rapidly from one image to another, often without allowing ourselves the time to truly encounter what we see. Yet I find myself wondering how these photographs might be perceived over a hundred years from now, when neither the photographer, the people portrayed, nor those of us looking at the images today will be here. From this perspective, photography acquires another dimension: it becomes a trace of a shared presence, a fragment of life that outlives the circumstances of its making. What might appear ordinary or fleeting today may become a significant testimony of a world that has disappeared.

© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42"

Photographing, in this sense, can be an act of participation rather than appropriation. Through repeated visits, sustained attention, and the slow formation of relationships, Bricegno approaches the camera as a potential place of encounter—a space in which different experiences, memories, and references can coexist and enter into dialogue. The photographs do not claim ownership over the lives they depict; instead, they acknowledge the responsibility inherent in looking.

© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42"

© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42"

This is particularly important when photography engages with communities rendered invisible, or with places neglected by development, where inequality manifests itself in environmental, educational, and social difficulties. Such contexts are often reduced to simplified narratives that reproduce the very distance they claim to document. Bricegno neither conceals nor romanticizes the challenging landscape of Capotillo. Instead, he foregrounds the dignity and humanity of its inhabitants, revealing the richness of everyday life without turning hardship into spectacle.

© Alfonso Bricegno, "La 42"

La 42 asks us to look not out of pity, but out of recognition. A hundred years from now, all the people we encounter through photography, regardless of their social position, cultural background, or apparent fortune, will share the same human fate. Their lives, preserved in images, will become fragments of a past through which we can reflect on our collective history. Photography reminds us that no life is insignificant, and that every human presence contributes to our understanding. 

Alfonso Bricegno (instagram)