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EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN
Inset: Untitled, Matheson Hammock Park
Above: Alessandro Sarno takes in the city’s skyline.
Everyone comes to Miami for a reason. For some, it’s a political safe haven. For others, it’s a respite from brutal winter weather up north. For photographer Alessandro Sarno, Miami offered a sanctuary where he could press a much-needed pause button on his life.
The Italian-born photographer was working in London when he was dealt two very personal losses. Realizing that “it was time to restart and leave everything behind,” he recalls, Sarno decided to trade the grayness of London for the glitz of the Sunshine State.
Having fallen for Miami as a young man watching episodes of the ’80s series Miami Vice, the Magic City was an obvious choice. “I loved the bridges, the bay, the jungles, the architecture, neighborhoods, neon signs, flashy cars ... and the hot chicks,” he says with a laugh. “I loved Miami way before I stepped on its soil for the first time. ... I remember being fascinated by it—and I still am.”
Upon his arrival, he slept on a friend’s couch and spent his days cruising the streets of Miami on his plum-colored Vespa, exploring the unassuming corners, lush landscapes, and tropical modernist architecture of his adopted home.
After a few weeks, he moved into The Betsy, South Beach’s iconic art hotel, where he says he dreamt of having an exhibition. Many years later, Sarno’s dreams would become reality after a chance encounter with Lesley Goldwasser, the hotel’s co-owner and a renowned art collector, who gave Sarno a solo exhibition featuring his photographs of the Bahamas.
Sarno’s fi rst trip to Miami coincided with the beginning of many visits to the lesser-known Bahamian islands. Capturing the daily lives of the Bahamian people became an obsession, as he recalls being “drawn to the intricacies of Bahamian life: worship services, concerts, funerals, civic activities, and all the little details which emerge in between.”
The extended stays eventually resulted in a collection of coffee-table books and photographic essays on the Bahamas, including Eleuthera: The Garden of Freedom, Exumas: The Kingdom of Blue, Cat Island: Diamonds and Rust, Exuma Cays: Land and Sea Park, and his travel guide, White Bull on the Highway.
Meanwhile, as his love affair with Miami persisted and over the course of the next 15 years,
Sarno would return to Miami to document its people and places with his camera. These photographs would eventually become the ultimate love letter to the city, in book form. The idea for Miami: Contemporary Visions from a Tropical Jungleland came to Sarno while he was visiting friend (and now publisher) Stefano Carniato of Giusto Libri.
Soon after, during a visit to the HistoryMiami Museum, Sarno discovered the Miami Stories series, a collection of fi rst-person narratives about Miami’s
This page, clockwise from above: Untitled; Lightness, Hobie Island; The Pool Behind the Palms, Little Haiti.
Opposite page, counterclockwise from top: Nothing Can Stop Nature, Coral Gables; Through the Leaves, Miami Beach Botanical Garden; Sarno’s new coff ee-table book, Miami: Contemporary Visions from a Tropical Jungleland. Sarno notes that its images are not of “all the iconic and most known tourist places.” Instead, he says, the book refl ects the way he sees Miami, as “a city shared by both humans and wildlife, in an uncommon balance.”
This page, clockwise from left: The Colors of Love, Miami Beach; Painted Sunset, Pelican Harbor; Untitled, the brightly colored home of amateur archaeologist and preservationist Ishmael “Golden Eagle” Bermudez in the Brickell area; Se Compra Camaron, Miami River; Untitled.
Opposite page: Dreaming, The Betsy Hotel, Miami Beach, where Sarno debuted his new book in December 2022.
past, present, and future shared through writings, video submissions, and audio recordings. “An idea sparked in my head to accompany the photos with real-life stories,” Sarno remembers.
To achieve this, he reached out to the museum’s folklife curator, Vanessa Navarro Maza. “We collaborated to find stories in our archive related to the themes [in] his photographs,” Maza says. Through QR codes printed throughout the book, readers can immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of the city, a goal for Sarno who wanted to
create “a book that satisfies all the senses. I thought about the scent, but that became too complicated,” he says, laughing.
Miami: Contemporary Visions from a Tropical Jungleland includes influential moments in and snapshots of the city’s history, such as the establishment of Little Bahamas, ancient ruins from the Tequesta tribe, the rebirth of a Cuban brewing tradition, Miami’s segregation era, and an incredible underwater world beneath the city’s urban development. Jungleland also features stories and commentary from celebrated Miami natives—including celebrity restaurateur Michelle Bernstein, who praises Sarno’s work. “This
I LOVED MIAMI WAY BEFORE I STEPPED ON ITS SOIL FOR THE FIRST TIME. ... I REMEMBER BEING FASCINATED BY IT—AND I STILL AM.”
is an epic tale of a fascinating city—our city—and its evolutionary narrative,” says Bernstein. “His images flood my senses with memories [from] every decade of my life here in South Florida.” Other famous contributors include Cocaine Cowboys filmmaker Billy Corben, who notes that “Miami has always been a tale of (more than) two cities: haves and have-nots, natives and immigrants, past and future, paradise and swamp. That dichotomy, tribalism, and allure are captured vividly, vibrantly, and occasionally tragically by Alessandro’s penetrating eye.”
Adding to Jungleland’s full-spectrum experience of photography and recordings from Miami Stories are poems by Richard Blanco, who was the poet at President Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration, and Oscar Fuentes (aka the Biscayne Poet), whose verses elicit a warm nostalgia from both natives and transplants alike.
As for Sarno, his own Miami story came full circle when he debuted his book this past December to a packed house back where it all began: South Beach’s The Betsy Hotel. “I would’ve never guessed that all the time spent cruising around Miami on my Vespa with my camera would become the invaluable visual treasure it is today,” he says. (shop.thelonesomephotographer.com) «
