The images of Máximo del Castillo lead us down roads and paths to the sea of Los Corbanitos. They reveal a past crystallized in organic forms; at the same time, they transport us to the future of this fringe of beach along the bay of Calderas, on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic.
Despite the obvious aridity of the region, the plants there have an exuberant character. Even the cactus—that tortoise of the vegetal kingdom—dazzles us with its long tentacles, the condensation of decades. This vitality owes nothing to rains. The dry forest is patience, continuity, slow accumulation.
By contrast, a truck and a sign announcing the sale of cleared-off land suggest interruptions, signal the transformation of the landscape into a product. Through these indications, the series of photographs contains the seed of what follows them: the real-estate brochure, tourism advertising.
From that perspective, the white cross we see in one of the photos takes on a double meaning. Memory and prophecy stuck in the ground, it recalls a life and evokes, as a kind of homage in advance, the possible alteration of this place, perhaps definitive.
