Fannie and Alan Leslie Center for the Humanities at Dartmouth College

El Malecón: A Wall of Shame

El Malecon is a boardwalk area in the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, known for its luxurious gated penthouses, tourist hotels and casinos, fancy restaurants, and large business centers.  

This photo essay is not about that Malecón.  

This photo essay is about an other Malecón, one which does not appear in the tourist brochures or postcards; one that is often invisible to the hundreds of people who stroll down the boardwalk everyday, looking for a place to watch the sunset and feel the ocean's breeze, while having an iced cold beer.

This photo essay is about an invisible Malecón, one surrounded by homelessness, poverty, marginalization, police persecution, and hope.  

Through the lives of César, Gordo, Garza, Cacón, Rosy, Susana, and many other people who form part of a very particular community of homeless, this photographic project seeks to shatter the wall of shame that has persistently divided the two sides of El Malecón by making those who have been kept invisible --the homeless, the mentally ill, the sex workers and the laborers-- visible and present. The photographs you see today are the result of a seven- month encounter in which I was allowed to participate and document the everyday life experiences of this marginalized community. The result was the gift of trust and friendship that is captured in each of the images that were given to me, to give to you today.

The homeless and the mentally ill constitute one of the most marginalized groups of people in the world.  They are discriminated against, abused and ultimately made invisible, and denied the most basic of human rights.  As a photographer, I have always sought to document the human condition of people who have been pushed to the margins of society, showing them within their environments in order to raise awareness about the issues affecting them, while presenting the similarities that exist within "their" and "our" lives:  they work, eat, laugh, dance, cry, fall in love, and they are very much part of this wonderful miracle we call the human race.  

John Paul Gallagher is photojournalist committed to documenting the human condition of underprivileged people in the world.  He has occupied several positions in the non-profit sector, working closely with the homeless and the mentally ill, while crafting his photography to serve as a vehicle for raising awareness around social issues such as poverty, homelessness and marginalization.

Gallagher's first individual exhibit entitled Angel's Night (2004) was named in honor of the volunteered community watch program that patrols the neighborhoods of Detroit on Mischief Night to prevent vandalism. The exhibit portrayed various aspects of the people that inhabit the city of Detroit: their struggles, celebrations, protests, and victories.

In 2005, John lived in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico in order to develop a photo essay on the life of the modern day Mayan descendents, focusing on their cultural practices, as well as the issues of repression, poverty and disenfranchisement affecting their communities.  For a period of 18 months Gallagher lived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic where, after working closely in one of the city's most impoverished neighbors, Cristo Rey, he presented his second individual exhibit entitled Cristo Rey: Entre Lucha y Esperanza (Cristo Rey: Between Struggle and Hope). The exhibit, which opened April 6th, 2006, in the Dominican Republic, presented the everyday life aspects of this neighborhood, its peoples and their religious practices.  In 2007, he opened his exhibit El Malecón: A Wall of Shame at the Riverside Gallery in New York City, which portrayed the life of the homeless that inhabit the beachfront tourist area of Santo Domingo.  

Gallagher has worked closely with educational institutions, and NGOs.  He has won several photo contests; including the 2005 Los Angeles Fair Art Contest, representational division, and the International Fair Trade Photo Contest and Exhibit in 2006.  His work has been exhibited in Latin America as well as in, California, Missouri Michigan, and Pennsylvania.