Tony Pérez, 2018. Photo: Miri Páez Bolet.

Miami alternative

Miri Paez Bolet
21.10.2019
3 minutes Reading

I study music since I am 5 years old, it is what I did a great part of my life and somehow I continue doing it. I took my first photos while studying at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory of Music. Then the camera became an extension of my arm :-).

I don't have a favorite type of photography because it gives me great pleasure to produce images in any sphere, but since 2006 I have taken photos of music and musicians; I have some of my school life, my teachers and my generation, including concerts, rehearsals of different musicians, and much of my social service, teaching music students, their activities, etc.

Alfredito Rodríguez, FIU, otubre 2018. Photo: Miri Páez Bolet .

Since 2013 I live in the city of Miami, Florida. Photography was my therapy and adaptation tool, with which I have explored everything around me, making it mine. Musical spaces have been an important point in this. Being able to live in some way with the Cuban musicians of this city that are part of different periods within the Cuban exile as well as others that are passing through, has become one of my recurring photographic themes.

Amaury Gutiérrez at home, 2017. Photo: Miri Páez Bolet .

Attractive for me, for example, has been able to compile since 2014 moments that are lived in a jazz club called Le Chat Noir, whose Cuban owners Alexis Salis and Ezzio Chaviano, do a tremendous job with jazz. An incredible site, because it is precisely at the zero points of downtown Miami, and its concert schedule is constant. Besides, as a curious fact, one of the owners is a descendant of the original owner of the club Le Chat Noir (yes, the famous poster) opened in Paris in 1881.

Arturo Sandoval in master class, 2016. Photo: Miri Páez Bolet.

I continue to attend every concert that I can to enjoy it and take pictures that are left to remember, with the effort to change a little the perspective of Miami as a place of culture and very banal life. I think I've always tried to convey the Miami that I see, and I try to claim its values in many ways. The Cuban presence in this city and its importance is undeniable, and without a doubt, the music is indivisible to our group culture and idiosyncrasy, so… we continue!!