The Architectural Photography of Rudi and Annette Rada: South Florida and the Caribbean in the Mid-Twentieth Century

The architectural and commercial photography of Rudi and Annette Rada, ca. 1946-1969, documents the cities, buildings, landscapes, and people of South Florida and the Caribbean, at a time when publications such as The Miami Herald, House and Garden, The American Home, and others were promoting mass travel to a region that was still largely perceived as an untouched paradise. Rudi Rada (1907-1961) is considered among the best architectural photographers of his generation, and his body of work includes photographs of private residences, apartment buildings, hotels, public and commercial buildings, churches and schools, and even architectural models. Based in Miami, he and Annette also produced images for advertising brochures, exhibitions, and journals, bringing to light mid-century modernist architecture as well as the colonial era buildings of Cuba and Puerto Rico, the Mediterranean revival architecture of the Villa Vizcaya in Miami, and vernacular buildings and landscapes throughout the region. They also photographed birds, animals, and people in their environments, especially the Seminole Indians. Their work over twenty years explored the local culture of the Caribbean in extraordinary detail, capturing the new awareness of mass tourism and bringing to light the changing identities of several Caribbean nations and their people. More importantly, their photography challenges our conventional understanding of the relationship between Miami and Havana, exposing how the two cities became playgrounds for wealthy travelers who were largely unconcerned with urban and rural corruption and poverty, the increasing influence of North American taste, and the painful reality of revolutionary instability.