In Photos: A decade growing up in pre-gentrification Lower East Side

When photographer Angela Cappetta moved into her own apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1991, the neighbourhood was not the trendy area full of late-night bars and life that it is today. Rents were cheap, there were clusters of abandoned buildings, and, to outsiders at least, it was mostly known as an area rife with crime.

After growing up in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 70s and early 80s, Cappetta knew to judge the area on more than just its reputation. ​“When I was growing up, New Haven had the highest crime rate in the country – it had more murders per capita than Detroit and Washington D.C. combined,” Cappetta says. ​“The Lower East Side would get very dicey, but I felt comfortable in that kind of neighbourhood because it was reflective of my own childhood. I would get up early in the mornings when it was safer – children were in the playgrounds and families were out, it felt more ​‘neighbourhood‑y’ in the morning.”

Cappetta would spend time photographing families she met out and about in the early hours. She found herself particularly drawn to a neighbouring Puerto Rican family and their youngest daughter Glendalis, whose life reminded the photographer of hers. ​“I grew up multi-generationally, very typical of a Mediterranean family system – no boundaries, no privacy, everyone’s on top of each other – it’s kind of insane but also very joyous,” she recalls. ​“I’m the youngest daughter and she’s the youngest daughter in terms of their family system, and every photographer is looking to beautify their own experiences of who they are.”

The photographer struck up a close relationship with Glendalis and her family, and she went on to photograph them over the course of a decade. Her new photobook, Glendalis: The Life and World of a Youngest Daughter, collates those images and presents them together. The work provides an up-close-and-personal look at the life of a working-class Puerto Rican family in the Lower East during the 90s, documenting them growing up as the world changed around them.

The pictures highlight the tight-knit family and community that Glendalis occupies. With the bulk of the photographs captured inside her family’s apartment, Glendalis is rarely alone in her younger years. She’s found leaning across a backrest that her grandmother is sitting on as sunlight beams across them, hanging out with her father, or sitting on the floor while her sister flicks through a teen magazine in the background.

But that changes throughout the photobook’s spreads. Glendalis gradually ages from a child to a young woman, and the later photographs see her in more solitary, independent situations. There are increasingly deliberate choices of clothing, a phase with a blonde streak in her hair, and towards the end of the book are pictures taken from her ​‘Sweet Sixteen’ birthday party, where she sits in front of a huge pink cake wearing a pink dress to match.

They are relatable images, but Glendalis: The Life and World of a Youngest Daughter isn’t a coming of age story, according to Cappetta. ​“It’s about how people change in invisible ways,” she says. ​“And how a family marks their life, just through living a compelling life.”

Glendalis: The Life and World of a Youngest Daughter by Angela Cappetta is published by L’Artiere

Buy your copy of Huck 81 here.

Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram.

Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.