05/05/2026
Save the date: May 9th, at 6 pm | “Elisa Benedetti: A Fresh Story to Rewrite”, presents the work developed by the Venezuelan photographer during her residency at the Miami Photographic Observatory (MPhO), a project centered on the women of Little Havana as bearers of memory, lived experience, and belonging.
Grounded in a practice shaped by proximity and reciprocity, Benedetti creates portraits in workplaces and within the homes of her participants, where domestic space acquires depth as both a cultural landscape and an extension of the lives it shelters. Rather than documenting a community, the artist constructs, together with her subjects, a shared space of representation in which the image emerges through relationship.
The exhibition also incorporates a questionnaire conceived by the artist and completed by those women, adding a layer of self-representation that expands the portrait into a more dialogical register. In parallel, a series of Polaroids introduces an immediate documentation of the neighborhood, forming an affective cartography that complements the project as a whole. Moving between portraiture, archive, and social observation, A Fresh Story to Rewrite offers an intimate and collective reading of Little Havana, positioning its women as active protagonists in the construction and rewriting of their own stories.
This exhibition was made possible with the support of Art Connection Foundation and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor, and the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.
About the artist
Elisa Benedetti has been based in Miami since 2018. She earned a master’s degree in Photography with PhotoEspaña and is currently pursuing an MFA at Florida International University. Her practice combines analog and digital processes, including the use of Polaroid and medium-format cameras. In 2025, she was selected to present part of her Overtown portrait series at Green Space Foundation, on view from October 2025 through March 2026. She is also currently exhibiting her project Liberty City at Sala Mendoza in Caracas, Venezuela. Her work has been shown at PhotoEspaña (Madrid), the HistoryMiami Museum, and in solo exhibitions in Miami. She has been selected for the Coral Gables Museum photography exhibition in two consecutive years and received the Arturo Michelena Prize in Venezuela (2023), with work included in the permanent collection of the Galería de Arte Nacional. She has published three artist books and understands photography as an affectionate archive—one that preserves stories honoring the people portrayed, and leaves a record for future generations.
About Art Connections
Arts Connection Foundation was created in 2006 by Andreína Fuentes Angarita. It is a nonprofit arts organization based in Miami, focused on community engagement, education, and support for artists. Its collaboration with the MPHo aligns with core goals, including promoting artistic projects with social impact and using art to engage communities, explore identity, and address social, cultural, and political issues. Overall, Arts Connection Foundation operates at the intersection of artistic creation, community participation, education, and cultural activism.
About the Miami Photographic Observatory
The Miami Photographic Observatory is an artistic residency and platform dedicated to studying, through photographic imagery, the urban evolution and current configuration of Miami’s vital spaces. The artists-in-residence will map various sectors of the city, creating updated visual archives to be presented on artistic and educational platforms. These archives will function not only as visual chronicles of a landscape and its time but also as interactive fields of dialogue between imagery and theory. Local and international artists will have access to studio/gallery space, where they can exhibit previous works and the commissioned pieces created during their residency.
The outcome of this multidisciplinary research will be gradually collected and organized on the Miami Photographic Observatory’s website. The visual mappings created by the residents will be presented in thematic exhibitions at Aluna Art Foundation’s space in Little Havana. Over time, the Miami Photographic Observatory aspires to become an essential visual and theoretical platform for the study of the city’s heritage and for understanding its transformations during the early decades of the 21st century.
