home

This body of work is dedicated to my brother, Daniel, who loves Miami as much as I do. Driven by our singular vocational passions, we were both compelled to leave this electric city with its warm beaches and loving friends. Daniel left in pursuit of a career in professional soccer; I left to develop my life-long dedication to photography.

 

I’ve thought a lot about what “home” means to me. Why do I have the feeling of home in so many places? What comforts me in such different cities like Miami (where I grew up), Medellin, Colombia (where my family is from), and New York City (where I currently live). This same feeling of home surrounds me in the company of my people like Papi y Mami, my brother Daniel, and my dearest friends.

 

It’s been said that home is where your family is, where your friends are, or, how my roommate so candidly put it, where your makeup is. I’ve realized, to me, home is where there is no need for explanation. Where I can just exist without words. I believe to be known is to be loved. With these cities and people, I’ve reached such a point where they know me. They’ve seen me, in all my states. With them, I feel home. 

 

This body of work “home” depicts my first home, the suburbs of Miami, South Florida. At the end of 2023 my family left this city. I moved to New York City to pursue a career in photography. At the same time my parents and brother moved to Barcelona so he could pursue his career in professional soccer. Although living in Miami is no longer our present, this hasn’t stopped my brother and I from returning and staying with friends during college breaks This body of work remembers the feeling of “home” we shared. It was shot within the span of three weeks in December 2024 during my winter break from Parsons School for Design.

 

When I returned for break, I was mesmerized by the familiar sites of my past I took for granted, and set to memorialize what I left behind. Some of these places include the beach, beach parking lots, Margharitaville Plaza, Tree Tops Park, the Everglades, Isa’s backyard, and even the highway. In revisiting the familiar and exploring the unfamiliar, I felt, for the first time, I truly saw my corner of South Florida, as it had so intimately seen me. I find home in many corners of the world, yet this was my first.

 

These photographs are my love letter to South Florida, a place I will forever nostalgically cherish.