Looking North Along the Shore

Early that morning I was on Miami Beach working on a video shoot with my friend Melina Almodovar.

While I was there, I photographed what was happening around me.

I remember looking in different directions that morning—south, east, and north.

This was the view to the north.

The shoreline carried my eye toward the buildings while the Atlantic stretched beside them. Behind the city, enormous clouds were catching the early light.

I don't remember a particular building being the reason for the photograph, and I don't want to invent one now.

What I do remember is looking around.

This was simply one of those directions.

North, along the shore.

Looking North Along the Shore places the Miami Beach skyline within a larger coastal environment rather than treating the architecture in isolation.

Photographed at 300mm, the compressed perspective brings the distant buildings and large morning clouds into a strong visual relationship. The shoreline enters from the lower left and recedes toward the city while the Atlantic occupies much of the foreground and right side of the composition.

Warm early light touches portions of both the architecture and the clouds, contrasting with the cooler blue of the ocean.

The photograph belongs to a group of images Colón made while working on Miami Beach on the morning of July 25, 2016. His recollection that he photographed in several directions provides useful context for the image without establishing that the photographs were conceived as a formal directional series at the time.

When I look at the photographs from this morning together, I can see myself turning.

South.

East.

North.

I don't remember thinking that I was creating a series.

I was there for something else entirely.

But I had my camera, and I was paying attention to what surrounded me.

Years later, the photographs allow me to stand there again and look around.

This one gives me the view to the north.

The buildings have changed since then. The clouds disappeared within minutes. The water kept moving.

But for 1/1000 of a second, this was the view.

North, along the shore.

Made on Miami Beach, Florida, on July 25, 2016, Looking North Along the Shore belongs to the same morning of photography as Undisturbed (FCS-PH-0148), The Morning I Had Forgotten (FCS-PH-0152), and Between the City and the Sea (FCS-PH-0153).

Colón was on Miami Beach that morning for a video production with his friend and musician Melina Almodovar. During the morning he also photographed the surrounding beach, ocean, sky, people, wildlife, and city.

The photographer remembers making photographs while looking in several directions—south, east, and north. This image records the northward view along Miami Beach.

The photographs were not consciously conceived as a formal directional series. Their relationship became apparent only when the work was revisited years later.

Camera metadata records this exposure at 6:46:34 AM, approximately six minutes and forty-three seconds after Between the City and the Sea, recorded at 6:39:51 AM.