City College hosts Dominican Photo Exhibit

Project director Natasha Despotovic found herself overwhelmed by the beauty that sprawled beneath her during a leisurely helicopter ride.

Below her lay lush mountainsides and crystalline lagoons that compromised the lesser-known, intimate locations tucked away within the Dominican Republic.

Compelled to capture these sights, she and her team at the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute transformed photography they took that day into a series of portraits detailing the beauty of the Dominican landscape, gathering them all into a book entitled New Perspectives: Dominican Republic. Fifty six of the photographs are now on display at the City College of New York.

Running from Sept. 13 to Oct. 31, the exhibit, New Perspectives, sheds a contemporary eye on the Dominican Republic and offers visitors a rich and diverse array of stunning, colorful photos that impeccably capture the lure of the isle.

Each set of pictures is displayed on an archipelago of installations spanning across the open space, welcoming students daily with photos that detail well-known aspects of urban sprawl in Santo Domingo to organic beauty captured in the pictures such of that of Samaná Bay.

"I'm amazed at the variety of locations the exhibit shows off; it's really nice to see because I didn't know half of these places even were there," commented a professor at the College who preferred not to be named, pointing at the picture of Salto de Limón.

The installations reveal exceptional beauty that is rarely portrayed: from the abundant Laguna Gri-Gri nestled in the cruxof the Dominican coast and representative of the pristine natural beauty important to the face of the isle to the lofty heights of the Province of San Juan where the Pico Duarte lies.

Dominican culture has a colorful history, and the installation portrays both the past and the present through its stills. Their prized agricultural tradition is the focus of a number of shots in the installation: A portrait of a farmer leading a group of bulls dozing over sugar cane highlights a strength of the country, sugar at one point being the most important cash crop the country grew.

The converse now is their legendary tobacco crop; a solitary farmhouse surrounded by uniquely rich soil nurturing the crop is the focal point of a strong image that represents this institution.

A few photos highlight the revolutionary and diligent character of the Dominican people, an aerial shot of the Obelisk of the Mirabal Sisters serves as a testimony to the end of dictatorial control and the symbol of the new age that dawned thereafter.

One photo, taken on a sandy beach on the edge of the Madre River where people wash their clothing, with their linen strewn all over on show, represents an informal aspect of the country's job market    

"I love this exhibition and I feel something like this gives my country a more well rounded picture and best of all, promotes the country nicely," said John Sanchez, a Dominican immigrant student that attends City College.

Despite their opinions, both were proud nonetheless, and continued to wax eloquent about the country.

The appreciation this exhibit generates in the midst of a prominently Dominican neighborhood and a school as diverse as City College is significant to behold, effortlessly drawing you close as the Polo Magnetíca in the province of Barahona does to vehicles up its steep slope.

An expression of pride in a smart, culturally engaging approach, New Perspectives is the result of harnessing what could have been a single moment of awe into a captivating experience.