A Peculiar Paradise: Florida Photographs

A Peculiar Paradise: Florida Photographsby Nathan Benn focuses on the year 1981, a time when South Florida became notorious as the gateway for narcotics and a destination for Caribbean immigrants, while in other parts of the state, life went on without interruption or conflict. Benn shows us a state that is vibrant and marvelously quirky during a time of gaudy prosperity for some while other Floridians merely sought continuity or struggled desperately for their survival. Often charged with political and social commentary, the photographs take full advantage of Kodachrome film's distinctive color palette. Photographs and narrative are organized into segments covering manifestations of extreme wealth, Little Havana, illegal Caribbean immigration, elderly citizens, quirky flora and fauna, high and low nightlife, Dundee's 5th Street Gym, and the deadly narcotics war.

Benn, born and reared in Miami, reveals in his first-person commentary the circumstances surrounding the development of his career and an insider's look at working for National Geographic Magazine during a period of that publication's internal management conflict. A Peculiar Paradise offers an entertaining and subjective volume that reflects Benn's affection for his hometown and celebrates the economic and social re-invention of Florida that eliminated most of what was familiar from his boyhood.

Nathan Benn was born in Miami, Florida, and worked for the Miami News while attending Miami-Dade College and the University of Miami. Immediately after graduation he became a photographer for the National Geographic Society. Three-hundred of his photographs were published in National Geographic magazine, and hundreds more in numerous books. In 1991 he was co-founder and President of Picture Network International, the earliest Internet digital asset management and online stock photo licensing platform. From 2000 through 2002, Nathan was the Director of Magnum Photos, Inc. In 2013 powerHouse Books published his award-winning monograph Kodachrome Memory: American Pictures 1972-1990.

Charles Churchward is known for his art direction, design, and editorial achievements in the publishing world and has worked for many of the most influential magazines of our age. Best known as the Design Director at Vogue and Vanity Fair at Conde Nast Publications. He is the author and designer of Herb Ritts: The Golden Hour (Rizzoli 2011) and The Eye And Visual Influence Of Alexander Liberman: It’s Modern. (Rizzoli 2013), creator and designer of Then: Photographs By Alexander Liberman (Random House 1995) and art director for the books In Vogue (Rizzoli 2006), Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People (Knopf 2007), Extreme Beauty In Vogue (Skira 2009), and The World In Vogue: People, Parties, Places (Knopf 2009).

Verna Posever Curtis is an art historian and curator specializing in photographs and other works of art on paper. Born in Miami Beach, she is a former curator at the Library of Congress and the Milwaukee Art Museum, her publications include Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography (Aperture Foundation 2011); Ambassadors of Progress: American Women Photographers in Paris, 1900-1901 (Terra Foundation 2001); and F. Holland Day (Clio Press 1995).