ALEX HERIA

Displaced. Foreign. Alien. Aggrandized. Hyperbolic. Embellished.

These were the feelings I had when I was first "kidnapped" from New Jersey to Miami by my parents. Literally arrived home, packed bags, move to Miami.

Being Cuban and having the whole EXÍLIO thing drilled into me since birth, I now understood the feeling. At 10 years old.

From that moment the search for meaning, for ego, for belonging to a tribe, and an environment, obsessed me. Godzilla movies, KISS, disco then new wave, Cubichis (as, I came to discover, was what I was), and finally art; all were my forays into having and keeping worlds of my own that wouldn't be exiled away.

Photography was a natural home for my talent. Seeing the world, particularly my hot white-washed Miami world, and embellishing the visual record became a trademark style I pursued with a vengeance. I came late to art and had a lot to make up for.

I became interested at first in following my mentors, Teresa Diehl, Mirta Gomez and Ed Delvalle, and later, in Grad School, Nicholas Nixon, Frank Gohlke and Abe Morel. These people introduced me to the craft of photography. I brought my aesthetic of Cuban hyperbole to the processes of photographic image capture and began my journey. Being so fascinates by the process, almost using each new camera as an “excuse” for a new photographic project, it’s no wonder that the work takes on a different look with each new subject. Yet, with that being said, I bring my self into everything I see. The power of embellishment, of aggrandizing the world as we see it is the driving force underlying all my artistic endeavors.