PICTURING FLORIDA’S POLARITIES & PECULIARITIES

Photographer Nathan Benn's new book shows a state in transition during the 1980s

Photographer Nathan Benn documented life in the Sunshine State during the 1980s for National Geographic. The Miami native resurrects his photos that tell a titillating story in his new book, A Peculiar Paradise: Florida Photographs.

When National Geographic magazine sent photographer Nathan Benn to Florida in 1981, he found his home state a compelling subject for a series of photographs. “I was very engaged by the circumstances of where Florida was in 1981,” says the Miami native. “That particular moment was a pivotal moment in Florida. It really engaged me intellectually as a journalist.”

The state was dealing with an influx of immigrants from Cuba and Haiti. Crime was on the rise because of a flourishing drug trade. A drought was causing agricultural problems.

“You had environmental, social, political and economic disruption, and the obvious ‘trouble in paradise’ headlines,” explains Benn, 68. “But that’s not what made it interesting. What made it interesting was that you had all of that going on—in an extreme form—in contrast to this mystic, mythical paradise of Florida. And for many people it was still a paradise; their lives were not affected.”

When Benn finished that months-long assignment, he believed he had a strong collection of photos with an important story to tell. “The most powerful, significant body of work I had done in my career was this set of photographs,” he says. “I was at the peak of my power as a photographer; I was fast on my feet and could see well, and I knew what I wanted to get in the

Among the photos featured in Nathan Benn’s Peculiar Paradise:FloridaPhotographs is this image of Charles Tipton and his family from Panama City harvesting oysters at dawn in the Apalachicola Bay.

Cuban-born “Memory Artist” Mario Sanchez began painting in 1930 on paper bags and cedar wood boards. He is best known for bas-relief wood carvings that he painted over in vibrant colors, usually depicting scenes of Key West.

Photographed at Miami International Airport, sugarcane cutters from Jamaica prepare to go home after harvest season.