Miami, not the Beach
Allapattah is a popular district of Miami, with a large Cuban and Latino majority, wedged between the touristy Wynwood district and the airport. Although they belong to the same county, Miami and Miami Beach are in fact two quite distinct cities, with two mayors and two histories. The first officially became a municipality in the 1890s, while the other was created around 1915.
The "Miami, not the Beach" series takes as its starting point the "Esquina de Abuela" (Grandma's Corner), a sort of squat, halfway between ephemeral art venue and cultural center, organizing events for and with the local community. In a metropolis where urban planning and the constant need for cars do little to encourage encounters or the creation of a collective life, Esquina de Abuela is the gateway to a city quite different from the imagery attached to the seaside peninsula.
The work expands as I discover more of Miami, each time I'm introduced to someone by someone. New people take me to other historic neighborhoods like Liberty City, Overtown, Little Haiti and Little Havana, and sometimes these encounters lead to new photographs.
From the center to the outskirts of this multicultural, multigenerational city, family and social interiors are often favored, leading to detachment from the rest of the urban fabric, and even from the neighborhood. This work examines the possibility of reaching out to the Other - me towards them, and to each other - by opposing living together with and among oneself, in a society that is still highly segregated. These groups - Latinos, Afro-Americans, Caribbeans - occupy their own territory, transforming themselves according to influences, migratory flows and segregation processes, creating small open-air exit. This separation is reinforced by the carrying of firearms, or the adoption of dogs such as pit bulls, illustrating a desire to constantly protect oneself from others and keep them at a distance.
However, Miami and Miami Beach share a common problem: global warming. While Miami Beach is at zero sea level, Miami's working-class neighborhoods are six or seven meters higher. Real estate developers are investing heavily in these neighborhoods, as they are better protected from flooding and more sustainable. The result is gentrification on a massive scale. Many of the places photographed here are in danger of disappearing, many people of being displaced in the years to come, and with them a certain popular culture of which these photographs preserve the trace.
