Naomi Harris
‘Haddon Hall’
by Naomi Harris, published by Void in collaboration with MASA.
Winner of the 4th edition FUAM Dummy Book Award (Turkey) and second prize for 10th Kassel Dummy Award (Germany), ‘Haddon Hall’ by Naomi Harris is published in a collaboration between Void and MASA books.
Haddon Hall
South Miami Beach is a tiny gem of Art Deco architecture, warm sun and cool breezes. It was also the winter destination for many seniors throughout the 70s and 80s. During its golden age, upwards of 20,000 “snowbirds” (those who fly south for the winter to escape the cold north east) would migrate to the two and a half mile stretch of beachfront Shangri-La. After years of working hard, surviving the depression, the war and concentration camps, Jewish senior citizens made the pilgrimage south. A depressed economy and cheap rents in the crumbling Art Deco hotels made it an ideal choice for the retiree on a fixed income. The beach boardwalk overflowed with seniors, the sound of Yiddish filled the air as people spoke in their mammen loshen (mother tongue).
The Haddon Hall Hotel was the last option available to those seniors who wished to remain in South Beach. The dilapidated hotel offered the resettled seniors a place to live at a relatively reasonable price.
“I moved into Haddon Hall to embed myself with the hotel’s residents becoming their surrogate granddaughter. Equipped with a 35-mm camera and slide film, I photographed my surrogate bubbehs and zaidehs lounging by the pool, doing exercises and kibitzing on the veranda. I joined them for bingo, took them grocery shopping and to the beauty parlors; these people were my friends.”
Naomi Harris
Started in 1999, the project ended after two and a half years when most of the hotel guests either passed away, moved into nursing homes or became too frail to make the trip down to Florida.
Today Miami Beach is synonymous with luxury having become the playground for the rich and famous. And Haddon Hall itself has had yet another transformation; it's an adult-only hotel focusing on the LGBTIQ+ community.
Now, some twenty years later these images serve not only as documentation of the hotel’s last days as a place where seniors could happily live out their golden years, but mark the end of an era as there are no longer any pensioners wintering in South Beach.
Haddon Hall
20,5 x 27 cm
176 pages + postcard inserted
1250 copies
Open-spine silkscreened hardcover
ISBN 978-618-5479-11-4
Special Edition
Limited edition of 50 copies
With a fine art print numbered and signed by Naomi Harris.
Print size: 25 x 38 cm
Edition of 50
Printed InkJet on Hahnemühle Baryta paper
Naomi Harris
Visual artist Naomi Harris seeks out interesting cultural trends to document through her subjects. Personal projects include ‘Haddon Hall’ in which she followed the last remaining elderly residents of a Miami Beach hotel, published by Void and MASA Books; ‘America Swings’ (Taschen), which documents the phenomenon of the lifestyle; and EUSA (Kehrer Verlag), a reaction to the homogenization of European and American cultures through globalization.
A self-proclaimed hobo, Naomi has taken many road trips with her trusty sidekick Maggie, a Shih Tzu whom she rescued in 2011 while driving across the country for her project ‘Oh Canada’. In 2017 they drove around the United States searching for answers as to how Donald Trump won the presidency for a project called ‘First 100 Days’.
Other accolades include the FUAM Book Dummy Award for Haddon Hall in 2019, a Canada Council for the Arts’ ‘New Chapter’ Grant in 2017, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in 2013, a Long-Term Career Advancement Grant from the Canada Council in 2012, and the 2001 International Prize for Young Photojournalism from Agfa/Das Bildforum. Currently, Naomi is doing her Masters in Fine Arts at the University at Buffalo and when not in the studio you can find her walking her dog Maggie or curling, a sport she’s recently embraced.
Featured in
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✳︎ Winner – 4th FUAM Dummy Book Award 2019
✳︎ Second Prize – 10th Kassel Dummy Award 2019
✳︎ Finalist – 3rd Images Vevey Book Award 2019
✳︎ Finalist – W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanistic Photograph 2001
✳︎ Winner – 6th "International Prize for Young Photojournalism” by Agfa-Das Bildforum 2001
✳︎ Honorable Mention – “Yann Geffroy Award” presented by Grazia Neri Agency 2011
✳︎ Shortlist – FotoBus Library Award 2024
Deadbeat Club – Best Photobooks of 2021: Martin Amis
Photobookstore Magazine – Best Photobooks of 2021: Martin Amis
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CANADA, Library of the University of British Columbia
ENGLAND, Picnic
GERMANY, Fotobus Library
GERMANY, The Photobook Museum
GERMANY, Universität der Künste Berlin, Universitätsbibliothek
GREECE, Photometria Photography Center
GREECE, Void
ICELAND, Bókasafn Ljósmyndaskólans
ICELAND, Ströndin Library
IRELAND, The Library Project
LATVIA, ISSP
PORTUGAL, Narrativa
ROMANIA, Photo Romania Festival at Grain Lab
USA, Columbia University Library
USA, Haverford College Library
USA, Missouri State University Library
USA, MoMA Library
USA, National Gallery of Art Library
USA, New York Public Library, The
USA, Princeton University Library
USA, Stanford University Libraries
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Photograph: Naomi HarrisText: Naomi Harris
Cover & Text Design: João Linneu
Printing: MAS Matbaa
Binding: MAS Matbaa
Language: English
Copy Editor: Ruthanne Salido
Essay Editor: Paddy Johnson
Calligraphy: Fernanda Fajardo
Concept, edit and art direction developed in the 2018 Photo Book Making Master Class by Yumi Goto, Sandra van der Doelen and Teun van der Heijden, in collaboration with Reminders Photography Stronghold
Naomi Harris © for the photographs and text
Void © for this edition