ELIANA AND JONAH

BELLA FAMIGLIA PHOTOGRAPHY: Eliana Salzhauer with her son Joshua on the swing and pregnant with Jonah. Jonah was born on August 27th and weighed 8lbs 4ozs at birth. Eliana is a producer with CBS and is back to work.

ART BASEL 2008

My maternity portraits are the latest projects I have passionately pursued with my camera. (www.bellafamigliaphotography.com) I was inspired to be a photographer by the images my father shot in his years as Director of Photography at The Miami Daily News. One of his young protégés, Michael O’Brien, was drawn with a mission to photograph the underprivileged living in Miami’s poorest neighborhoods, resulting in numerous awards and interest. This lead to my project called “THE CORRIDOR.” I documented the neighborhoods between I-95 and the railroad tracks to the east from Deerfield Beach to Overtown. I return every nine years to re-photograph five of the subjects and show how their lives have changed. (www.charlestrainorjr.com) And it has always been for the better. (Images above: Ralph at age 6, with his new home at 15 and at FAMU at 24)

After 18 years into the project I felt it was complete enough to try and hang in a gallery during Art Basel 2008. Ignacio Gurruchaga, owner of the INDEPENDENT GALLERY in Wynwood worked with me tirelessly but he also helped to hang my father’s photography. My father covered Miami as a photographer when the city was beginning to come into its own. In the 50s and 60s the city hosted iconic individuals; Elvis Presley, The Beatles, candidate and soon to President John F. Kennedy, Cassius Clay and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, he had an infamous impact on the city. This was mid-century Miami, a time when the world was seeing this city take its place on the international set. We called the show “INTERSECTION”, a city where these iconic figures almost bumped shoulders within a few short years. The show was an incredible experience, two rooms filled with photographs from two generations from the same city, the same family, my family.

Opening night was busy with a curator from New York buying three Corridor prints without hesitation. Then my friend Kerry Sanders of NBC News delivered as promised, he walked in with Kimberly Marrero, Curator and Art Advisor at the Guggenheim in New York City. She loved both shows encouraging me to contact the International Center of Photography and show them The Corridor. The show hit its final peak one night when Ignacio called me and said Lenny Kravitz is in the gallery and wants to meet you. After four hours of talking photography, Lenny is also a photographer, we traded prints and planned to meet later and pursue a project together. He is on tour in Europe now and has just recorded a new album. This was truly a treat, and he is truly an artist in every aspect, the image he offered me could hang in any gallery respectfully. I currently have several projects or shows in the works for Art Basel 2009. And yes, my mother was at the show.

IT BEGAN AT THE BEACH

After a year of shaping my vision for a new photography business I’m finally close to marketing the photography site. Bella Famiglia Photography started with my friend Buddy, owner of the SouthPort Raw Bar, asking me to photograph his pregnant wife Noi. When asked I immediately remembered the photograph I shot of my godson’s mother on Fort Lauderdale beach. Veronica and I were driving along A1A near Las Olas, I had a white Roman column in the back seat of my car and she was 8 months pregnant. I suggested we take the column on the beach and have her sit on the column for a photograph, with a Hasselblad film camera. I think it took less than five minutes to shoot the picture.

Fast forward 11 years, me with more photography experience and seeing the same image with Noi except executed with location lights and the latest digital equipment. A full fashion shoot, the one that makes the bathers wonder who is that famous model. We arrived at the beach, battled 20kt winds with flying sand, I used Buddy as a light stand to hold the soft box and watching him point the light everywhere but at his wife. The shoot was a total struggle. But the reward came at Noi’s shower, she unwrapped the picture and began to cry, months of carrying the child she expressed her love for Buddy and how he has been a wonderful husband while she held the framed print. It only equaled the time that Todd, my godson’s father and Veronica’s husband, walked into my house and saw the photograph of his wife with child on the column on the beach. “The most beautiful picture I have ever seen," Todd said.

I couldn’t think of any better reason for Bella Famiglia Photograhy to be, I had taken photographs that truly offered my closest friends a special memory to have for life. And those memories will always be with me, and it makes Bella Famiglia Photography a passion more than a business.