Anthony Caronia, a local Playa del Carmen photographer has published a visual documentary of local Playenses.

He will be holding a release party at the Blue Parrot on Wednesday, May 10th from 8:00 until 10:00 PM. For more information on both Anthony and his book, Playa del Alma,read more below.....

Anthony Caronia has lived locally in Playa del Carmen for the past 9 years. He is originally from Rome, Italy, but has traversed the globe documenting cultures, and communities for his entire life. When he was 15 years old his family moved to Qatar, and this is where he first fell in love with viewing the world through a lens and documenting it for the world to see.

He spent 1 year in Qatar and 1 year in Saudi Arabia, and he fell in love with the desert landscapes. He caught the Bedouins on film, comparing old versus new traditions, and this was when he knew that documentary photography was in his blood. In his early 20’s Anthony found himself living in New York, and he was working as a professional photographer.

He was living the “city life” and he said that New York has a non-stop pulse like no where else in the world. He was doing work for the theater, music labels, and movie promotions. He felt that he was being bounced around in the big city, and needed to find his niche and follow his heart to continue to document different cultures across the globe. At this point he started to visit Brazil quite often, and he felt the need and intuition to document Afro-Brazilian religion, but had not yet had the chance to follow through on this dream.

In 1996 a friend from Italy visited him in New York, and this friend just so happened to have connections in none other then Playa del Carmen. He convinced Anthony to come down to shoot a new hotel that was just opening called Mosquito Blue. Anthony agreed, and had planned on coming for a few weeks for some R and R, and a bit of work thrown in for good measure. Of course, the three weeks turned into 3 months, and Anthony made the gradual progression from New York to Playa del Carman.

After just a few weeks in Playa del Carmen he got invited to visit Cuba, which started a 4 year relationship with traveling to Cuba. The end result was a beautiful black and white photography book based on Afro- Cuban culture, called Afro- Cuba, he created this book in lieu of the Afro-Brazilian book, that he was so fascinated with years before. He is currently and actively trying to find both the funds and the company to bring this book to fruition. His latest project is called Playa del Alma, and it is his current passion. And although he also has a coffee roasting company, Kawa, that keeps him more then busy, he is truly driven about this project.

It is a collection of portraits of Playenses from first generations to newer generations. The portrait style photographs are accompanied by bilingual descriptions of the cultural and ethnic differences that make up Playa del Carmen. Did you know there are people from 42 different nationalities that reside in Playa del Carmen?

And Anthony has done an incredible job of including as many as possible in this beautiful “coffee table” style book. Playa del Alma is now ready for public viewing and it will be featured at a book release party at The Blue Parrot on Wednesday, May 10th  from 8:00 until 10:00 PM. If you are interested in finding more information about Playa del Alma, or you would like to buy some delicious Chiapan coffee roasted right here in Playa del Carmen, contact Anthony Caronia at: 984-267-2922 or visit his website at: http://www.anthonycaronia.com/

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