41-63. Greater Miami 1978-present

My notion in South Beach was to photograph the people, to realize some sort of meaning. When photographing around Miami, I simply intended to photograph without intentions. My father’s business, his office and warehouse, was in the northern end of downtown Miami, so unlike most youths I spent time there, and I spent much time alone. Perhaps my attraction to areas beyond Miami led me to spread my wings, to make up for lost time and emotions.

As a child, often on Saturdays, I played with neighborhood children of color and didn’t then realize the significance of three bathrooms in the warehouse. I’d walk Miami Avenue to Flagler Street, stopping at Royal Castle. I’d work in the warehouse where I swept with some sort of industrial pellets and carried boxes, using my chin to steady and balance the cartons, as Robert, Pete and Carl, the black men who worked in the warehouse, had taught me. I learned to properly seal cartons with gummed paper tape from a heavy metal dispenser. Mine was a solitary, perhaps introspective, childhood.