Dakota Santiago

Dakota Santiago is an emerging photographer featured by The GroundTruth Project. His work focuses on documenting working class issues ranging from the current manufacturing landscape to the worsening housing crisis brought on by hyper-gentrification in the New York City area. His interest stems from a long family history of working in manual labor. Santiago graduated from New Jersey City University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts concentration in photography in 2016. He was accepted into the 4th annual New York Times Lens Blog portfolio review, published by Time Magazine's Lightbox, Jersey Journal, Newark Star Ledger and recently attended the Eddie Adams Workshop XXIX.

Derrick Green, from Gentlemen Sheet Metal, works at his welding station. A former IT worker, Derrick remembered the huge annual packets he had to fill out to prove to management his case for a raise. Today, he enjoys sitting back and letting his union, Local 28, fight for his prevailing wage. A makeshift memorial for Thomas R. Dolphin was put up near the intersection of Meeker Avenue and Gardner Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Photo by Dakota Santiago/GroundTruth)

A New Light

Portraits of working class New York

Seventy years ago, New York City was at its height in the days of a manufacturing economy. The...

Nov 01, 2016