An Evening with Victor Deupi in Partnership with Open House Miami

In partnership with , Books & Books presents an evening with author and professor Victor Deupi for the release of Rada Photography.

🎟 This event is FREE and open to the public and books will be available for purchase the night of the event! An RSVP grants general entry, but seating is not guaranteed, so please try and show up early. Please RSVP only if you intend to join us. Can't make the event?

The life and work of two photographers who captured the rise of Tropical Modern architecture in Miami and the surrounding region
In this first critical biography of the life and work of Annette and Rudi Rada, two photographers working in South Florida and the Caribbean from approximately 1946 to 1975, architectural historian Victor Deupi explores the lasting significance of the Radas in documenting the cities, buildings, landscapes, and people of the region during major social and economic transformations of the twentieth century.
During the South Florida building boom of the 1950s, the Radas were highly sought-after photographers. Magazines, newspapers, and travel firms hired the Radas to help advertise new houses and hotels, promoting the tropics and subtropics as a still-untouched paradise. In the Caribbean, Rudi Rada photographed new buildings intruding artistically and commercially into the natural environment while Annette Rada adopted a more ethnographic approach, photographing local people amid burgeoning mass tourism. Whether in South Florida, Cuba, or elsewhere in their travels, the work of the Radas captured postwar architectural evolution, as well as challenges faced by populations adapting to modernization.
Featuring a wealth of never-before-published photographs and material from several archives and collections, Rada Photography adds portrayals of the largely overlooked mid-century architecture of South Florida and the Caribbean to existing architectural photography in the US and Latin America. The artistic output of Annette and Rudi Rada documents how architects and architecture in the region gave shape to architectural styles now known as Miami Modernism or Tropical Modern.

Victor Deupi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in Practice at the University of Miami School of Architecture where he teaches history and theory, design, and representation. The principal focus of his research is on the Early Modern Spanish and Ibero-American world, mid-20th-century Cuba, and contemporary architecture. His books include Architectural Temperance: Spain and Rome, 1700-1759 (Routledge, 2015), Transformations in Classical Architecture: New Directions in Research and Practice (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, 2018), Emilio Sanchez in New York and Latin America (Routledge, 2020), Cuban Modernism: Mid-Century Architecture 1940-1970, with Jean-Francois Lejeune (Birkhäuser Verlag, 2021), Emilio Sanchez Revisited: A Centenary Celebration of the Artist’s Life and Work, with LnS Gallery (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, 2021), Stables: High Design for Horse and Home (Rizzoli, 2021), Wineries of the World: Architecture and Viticulture (Rizzoli, 2021), Pavilion Living: Architecture, Patronage, and Well-Being (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, 2023), The Urban Housing Handbook, with Eric Firley (Wiley 2023), and most recently Rada Photography: Mid-Century Architecture and Culture in South Florida and the Caribbean (University Press of Florida, 2026). A recipient of grants from Princeton University’s Program in Latin American Studies, the University of Miami’s Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, the Driehaus Foundation, and the Graham Foundation, Dr. Deupi was also the President of the CINTAS Foundation from 2016-2018 and is currently the President of the DOCOMOMO US Florida Chapter.

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Books & Books, 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables, United States

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