In New York, a Vivid Tribute to a Dominican Tradition

For Victor Llorente, photography runs in the blood. The Madrid-born, New York–based photographer’s grandfather owned a restaurant in Madrid and would regularly take photos of his patrons, which he would then print out and hang on the walls. Llorente picked up his first camera at the young age of thirteen, and his involvement in Madrid’s skateboarding scene led him to start shooting seriously. A chance encounter in Spain inspired Llorente to apply to the photography program at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), and he made his way to New York. Since then, his career has grown so much that he has been able to point his lens at the likes of Jimmy Fallon for The New Yorker and David Letterman for The New York Times. 

While in school at FIT, Llorente was hired to take photos for an international dance festival held on campus. It was there that Llorente first came into contact with Los Andulleros de Santiago, a Dominican cultural group that would serve as the subject of his yearslong photographic project titled Folklore. 

“I saw these guys dancing and they had these crazy costumes on,” says Llorente of that first meeting. “I went backstage after the show was done, and I was talking with them and the organizer of their group.” Llorente kept in touch with them, but it wasn’t until a year later in 2018, when the dance group was planning to participate in a Dominican parade in New York, that Llorente was invited to ride along in the parade and photograph them. 

From 2018 to 2023, Llorente regularly followed Los Andulleros de Santiago, photographing the evolution of the group. “There’s a story about these kids growing up, going from an early teen to a late teen and learning from the older generation,” says Llorente. Some of the members were twelve years old when Llorente began photographing them and sixteen by the time the project was completed. Comprised of a mix of diasporic Dominican residents, some of whom are first- or second-generation Americans, ranging from teenagers to seniors, Los Andulleros de Santiago is a carnival group based in the Bronx who perform traditional dances in folkloric costumes at various parades and festivals throughout New York. “The older generation wanted to try and keep this part of the culture alive,” says Llorente. 

As he built closer relationships with various participants, Llorente says he observed that older members of the group were eager to teach younger generations about the Dominican history and heritage that many of them didn’t have first-hand experience with living in the United States. “I think being part of this group would connect them back to their roots a little bit and where they came from,” says Llorente. “They’re learning how to put the costumes together. There’s a whole art behind it—it’s all about how you dance, how good you are with the whip, how loud you can make the whip sound,” he says.

Prior to Folklore, Llorente had been mainly shooting street photography with little directorial intervention toward his subjects. For this project, Llorente began experimenting with lighting and shadows, often shooting with movement and in small spaces. The photos in Folklore range from candid shots, such as a pool party scene shot in the Bronx, to more formal setups, like a seated portrait of a younger member at home or an infant holding a ceremonial whip used during performances. For Llorente, the crux of the project was Los Andulleros de Santiago and their philosophy, which, he says, was based around “their culture, how much they care about it and wanted to spread it.” 

To differentiate this body of work from his previous documentary street photography, Llorente set up a single light on a tripod, allowing the light to be diffused throughout various interior and domestic spaces in order to create a layering effect and dynamism within the frame. Still Folklore sets itself apart in his canon in other ways. “Some projects seem like it’s all about the photography,” Llorente says. “There’s so much about this project that’s not about the photography, it’s about them.”

Victor Llorente is a shortlisted artist for the 2026 Aperture Portfolio Prize, an international competition that spotlights new talent in contemporary photography.