In this color photograph, a boy sits outside a house with an orange pumpkin cut in two halves resting at his feet. The title suggests he is selling the pumpkin. Child Selling Pumpkins. Santiago, Dominican Republic is an explosion of colors, aromas, and textures where the vibrant red pants of the boy interact with the fresh orange pumpkin. The black shadows beneath him are balanced by the white wooden wall behind. The viewer’s attention is guided by a ray of light descending upon the boy in diagonal from the upper left corner to the center of the image. The young boy is looking in the direction of the photographer resolutely. He is wearing a checkered shirt and brown leather sandals. Domingo Batista took the photograph around 1988. The boy’s expression and proud pose challenge the gaze of the viewer. Batista probably wants to criticize the fact that the boy must work rather than play or attend school, showing one of the faces of child labor.This photograph was part of “Images of Silence: Photography from Latin America and the Caribbean in the 80s” at AMA in 1989, Bronx Museum of the Arts in 1990, and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in 1990. It entered AMA’s collection in 2002.
Domingo Batista was born in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic in 1946. He is considered to be a pioneer of contemporary photography in the Dominican Republic. His work represents the colorful, rich tropical environment with vast landscapes of that Caribbean island. Batista claims his color photography has reached “an intensely poetic artistic discourse that had been traditionally reserved for black and white [photography].” In 1968 he founded Grupo Fotográfico Jueves 68. He has published six books with his photographs because he considers this the best way to show his works. The first book was a collaboration of the group Jueves 68 with black and white photos: Diez años de fotografía dominicana (Ten Years of Dominican Photography). Later he published The Color of the Road (1982), Dominican Color (1988), Light Time (1993), Celebration of Color (1995), The Art of Seen (2007), Infrared (2010) and Transfigurations (2015). Batista was awarded First Prize of Photography by Geomundo magazine in 1980; First Prize of Photography at the XV Bienal de Bellas Artes Visuales de la República Dominicana in 1981; and Second Prize in the contest “Water, Vital Liquid,” organized by Américas, Official Publication of the Organization of American States, in 1985. In 1992 Batista produced the photo-mural People (2952 x 1182) for the Dominican Pavilion of the World’s Fair Expo in Seville, Spain. He has explored classic black and white photography and color photography. From 1999 he incorporated Photoshop into his creations. His subjects represent a realist approach to the Dominican people. He also has long series of breathtaking landscape photographs.
