Harry Hessell at Home, South Beach, Florida, USA, 1979
(catalog number 201H-002-040)

IN 1979 I photographed life in Miami Beach for Frank Muller-May at Stern magazine. As with the Falkland Road assignment, the magazine insisted that I photograph in color.

South Beach in 1979 was a much different place than it is now. The people who lived there were mostly elderly. Many of them were concentration-camp survivors, with numbers tattooed on their arms.

The place had a surreal atmosphere: old Deco hotels, pink bedrooms, and elderly people in brightly colored clothes. The hotels lining the beach had large porches, where their guests sat all day long and stared at the sea.

All the community centers had activities for the elderly, and every night there were dances. One of the most active and interesting places was a park by the sea. Every morning and every afternoon, the older residents gathered at the park to meet and talk. There were song contests. A sign by the podium read, ONE SONG ONLY. It was there that I met Harry Hessell. He said that he was an ex-window washer from New York. He claimed to be 104 years old.

I photographed many of the people whom I met in South Beach at their homes. When I asked Harry if I could go home with him, he was very agreeable. His home was one barren room in an old South Beach hotel. I photographed him by his refrigerator, fixing his dinner of canned soup. He then said to me, "Would you photograph me nude?" I was very surprised and a bit frightened. Harry Hessell was a very strong man for a 104-year-old. You have to be strong to be a window washer. But I knew that if I didn't seize the opportunity and take his picture, I would never forgive myself. So I said, "Sure." Harry took off his clothes and sat down on his bed, and that was how this picture was made.