Portraits of a long-lost art-deco world of Jewish retirees, lawn chairs and palm trees
In January 1974, David Godlis, then a 22-year-old photo student, took a ten-day trip to Miami Beach, Florida. Excited to visit an area he had frequented a decade earlier as a kid, Godlis set his sights on an area of art deco hotels, a Jewish retiree enclave on the expansive beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean. These retirees, all dressed up in their best beach outfits, would spend their days on lounges and lawn chairs, playing cards amid the sunshine and palm trees. Photographing this somewhat surrealistic scene, Godlis discovered his own street photography style—an eclectic mix of Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. Godlis shot 50 rolls of black-and-white film in just ten days, making his way up and down the beaches, photographing what he didn’t know then was essentially the end of an era. The area he photographed in 1974 is now the infamous South Beach. This volume reproduces this account of a vanished Miami Beach for the first time. Born in New York City in 1951, David Godlis picked up his first camera in 1970. He stumbled into the burgeoning punk scene at CBGB on the Bowery in the mid-1970s, where, after seeing Brassaï's photographs of 1930s Paris, he began to photograph with long handheld exposures under the Bowery streetlights, portraying the Ramones, Television, Richard Hell and Blondie, documented in his first book History Is Made at Night. Since the late 1980s he has been the unofficial official photographer for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, covering the New York Film Festival.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Godlis: Miami'.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Thursday, November 4 at 6:30 PM, Books & Books Coral Gables, HistoryMiami and Reel Art Press present an evening with David Godlis in conversation with Jorge Zamanillo, discussing Godlis: Miami, published by Reel Art Press. Please register here to attend and scroll down for Books & Books' in-person Covid policies. You can pre-order a signed copy of the book here. (Enter code SIGNED at checkout.) continue to blog
Thursday, October 28 at 6 PM EST, Rizzoli Bookstore presents renowned photographer David Godlis in conversation with writer Lucy Sante for the in-person book launch of Godlis: Miami, published by Reel Art Press. Please register here to attend and scroll down for Rizzoli in-person Covid policies. You can pre-order you copy of the book here. continue to blog
As the art world prepares to resume the exuberant in-person eruption that is Art Basel Miami—taking place December 2–4, 2021, after a somber 2020 pandemic hiatus—and in recognition of Hanukkah, which ends this year on the evening of Monday, December 6, we can think of no better book to feature than Godlis: Miami, collecting the cult NYC photographer’s pictures made during a 1974 trip to Miami Beach, Florida. Godlis writes, “Things have changed. Photographs are a testament to that.… In 2017, when I last returned to Miami Beach, I stayed in the little Century Hotel, looking pretty close to how it looked in 1974 when I first came upon it. I walked around to see where most of these pictures had been taken. To dream the dream I had photographed 40 years earlier. And I could still see it all. Even my cover girl in her cool Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses. The ocean and palm trees have a way of making those dreams come true. If only for a 1/125th of a second.” Featured photograph is “Ladies with Hairdos in the Sun, Lummus Park" (1974). continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 7.75 x 9.5 in. / 160 pgs / 100 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $39.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $53.95 ISBN: 9781909526846 PUBLISHER: Reel Art Press AVAILABLE: 11/9/2021 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AFR ME
Published by Reel Art Press. Text by David Godlis.
Portraits of a long-lost art-deco world of Jewish retirees, lawn chairs and palm trees
In January 1974, David Godlis, then a 22-year-old photo student, took a ten-day trip to Miami Beach, Florida. Excited to visit an area he had frequented a decade earlier as a kid, Godlis set his sights on an area of art deco hotels, a Jewish retiree enclave on the expansive beaches facing the Atlantic Ocean. These retirees, all dressed up in their best beach outfits, would spend their days on lounges and lawn chairs, playing cards amid the sunshine and palm trees. Photographing this somewhat surrealistic scene, Godlis discovered his own street photography style—an eclectic mix of Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. Godlis shot 50 rolls of black-and-white film in just ten days, making his way up and down the beaches, photographing what he didn’t know then was essentially the end of an era. The area he photographed in 1974 is now the infamous South Beach. This volume reproduces this account of a vanished Miami Beach for the first time.
Born in New York City in 1951, David Godlis picked up his first camera in 1970. He stumbled into the burgeoning punk scene at CBGB on the Bowery in the mid-1970s, where, after seeing Brassaï's photographs of 1930s Paris, he began to photograph with long handheld exposures under the Bowery streetlights, portraying the Ramones, Television, Richard Hell and Blondie, documented in his first book History Is Made at Night. Since the late 1980s he has been the unofficial official photographer for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, covering the New York Film Festival.
