miami beach
Miami Beach is not Miami. In fact it’s barely in the USA. Walking down Ocean Drive is like walking in Nice, only safer, and almost everyone speaks English here… as their second language. I eavesdrop on conversations while buying Italian Roast for my French Press from a Cuban barista who spoke German. On my way to a tapas dinner I saw a tourist give five Euros to a baffled homeless man. Like almost every beach community there are leathery transients interwoven with the over-tanned party-goers, spring breakers, regular tourists and locals. They don’t cause a lot of trouble, just enough. Stop for breakfast at the News Cafe and ponder the last moments of Versace. Take off your top and get baked on America’s greatest beach. Walk the historic Art Deco district in your flip shades and panama hat, winding up on Lincoln Road at dusk. Spend a quarter to ride the South Beach Shuttle down to Joe’s for stone crab before the season ends in May. Hit a few clubs or a dark dive bar or two, then retire to your cinematic hotel with a slice of Brooklyn pizza and a New York Times. Or not. The bold colors and swagger belie the fragility of the place; a wisp of sand in a rising tide. Luxury all around but everyone makes their money someplace else. The neon-lit cast of characters work on their lines, exaggerate their poses and try to figure out their next move. As I posed my model in South Pointe park one Saturday I saw, through the viewfinder, two men dressed as bride and groom stride into the frame and stop. Looking up from my camera I politely asked them to move on just a few more feet. “No, this is a photo shoot” snapped back their hipster photographer. “So is this” I replied.
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miami beach Photographs by Eric Jones
C Art Deco hotel on Ocean Drive 2 South Beach at daybreak 5 Closed concession stand 6 ‘68 Camaro on Ocean Drive 8 Vespa on Euclid Avenue 9 Windy tablecloth on Ocean Drive 10 Art Deco panorama from 12th Street 12 The Apogee condos at South Pointe Park 13 Joe’s Stone Crab 14 Babe, dude, and gawker on Washington Avenue* 15 A blue drink by the old city hall* 16 Low rider on the boardwalk* 17 Where’d my skateboard go?* 18 Laying down sand tracks 20 Security at the Wolfsonian Museum 21 Minimalist architecture on Collins Avenue 22 The Crowne Plaza from the beach path 23 Guy gets his bongo fix on Ocean Drive* 24 Barefoot lunch break 26 Another day in paradise 28 Dunes 29 Swing on the boardwalk 30 Looking North at dusk 32 The Casablanca BC One bottle of beer on the wall
miami beach
he photographs in T this magazine may be purchased on CD or as downloads from
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box 140402 manor road station new york, ny 10314 www.round-magazine.com miami beach vol. 1 © 2010 `round magazine
*Not included on CD