Haddon Hall
"Where Living is a Pleasure"
Miami Beach, once the haven of the retired person, full of sunshine, cheap rents and the early bird special is dead. In its place has sprung up a town thriving on debauchery and hedonism. Silicon, sun tan oil and cocaine has replaced banlon, Ben-gay lotion and rice pudding. The seedy hotels in the deco district that once provided affordable accommodation for the "snow bird" have since turned the older clientele away, renovated their rooms and jacked their prices up replacing them with younger richer customers. It is rare to see a senior citizen walking along Washington Avenue with their groceries in their buggy making their way through the sea of perfect midriffs, legs and breasts.
Haddon Hall was the last remaining hotel in Miami Beach's chic area known as South Beach that allowed senior citizens to reside there. Suspicious of strangers, Harris decided to make herself familiar to the residents by living in the hotel, which she did for two months during the winter of 2000. By gaining trust and friendship she was permitted into their guarded lives and was able to photograph and learn about these individuals.
Through Harris' photographs of these people, she intends to give voice to this forgotten group of individuals. Harris hopes to show that the elderly are survivors in many ways. While some have lived through war and persecution, others are simply surviving the daily struggles that are associated with being aged and on a fixed income.
Naomi Harris moved to Miami in December 1999 and continued this project until April 2002 when she moved back to New York. The project ended not due to the fact that she returned to New York, but because most of the hotel guests either passed away, moved to nursing homes or became too sick to make the trip down to Florida.
The Haddon Hall Hotel was the last safe haven for these individuals who were forced out of the other hotels as a result of gentrification. These images are a documentary of the hotels last days as a place where seniors could live out their golden years.
About Naomi Harris
Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Naomi Harris moved to New York City in 1997 to study at The International Center of Photography. After completing her studies at ICP, Naomi assisted photographer Bruce Davidson and worked at Life Magazine.
In December 1999 she moved to Miami Beach to pursue a personal project documenting the lives of the elderly residents of a hotel. For this work she received the 2001 Agfa Young Photojournalist Award, honorable mention for the Yann Geffroy Award, and was a finalist for the 2001 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. She was one of Photo District News' 30 Emerging Photographers in 2002, and received the gold award in photojournalism from the National Magazine Awards Foundation in 2003. She will be representing Canada at the World Press Joop Swart Masterclass held in the Netherlands in November 2004.
Naomi returned to New York in April 2002. She is currently working for various publications including The New York Times Magazine, Maclean's, Mother Jones, Newsweek, ESPN, Stern, The London Sunday Telegraph Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, and Toro Magazine while continuing with her own personal work.