Renowned Photographer From Miami to Havana and Back Again — The Soul Behind the Image at Red Dot Miami during Miami Art Week

Luis Casadevall has spent a lifetime looking at the world through images. A Spanish photographer and visual storyteller, his practice stands at the intersection of documentary photography and poetic humanism, exploring identity, memory, resilience, and the emotional presence that inhabits people and places. This December, Casadevall brings his long-term photographic exploration of Havana back to Miami for his first presentation during Miami Art Week, exhibiting at Red Dot Miami December 2–6, 2026 at Mana Wynwood, Booth 100.

Before dedicating himself fully to photography, Casadevall became one of the most influential creative figures in Spanish advertising, founding his first advertising agency at the age of 27 with his partner Salvador Pedreño. Their work contributed to the international prestige of Spanish advertising creativity, earning more than fifty Lions at Cannes, the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival, and numerous national and international awards. In 2007, the two were honored with the CdeC Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2013, Casadevall was named an Honorary Member of the Spanish Advertising Academy.

For Casadevall, creativity was always more than a profession—it was a different way of seeing. Over time, that way of seeing found a new path of expression in photography. With his inseparable Leica, he embarked on a journey through cities including New York, Tokyo, Mexico City, Miami, Naples, Palermo, Istanbul, Cairo, and many others. Yet it was a fleeting trip to Havana that sparked a deeper bond with the Cuban capital. He returned again and again, not as a tourist, but as someone who needed to understand the heartbeat of the city, its resilience, and its beauty. Through more than 65,000 photographs, Casadevall sought to capture what lies beyond the visible—the gestures, relationships, contradictions, dignity, vulnerability, endurance, and quiet poetry of everyday life.

Working primarily in black and white, Casadevall photographs what often goes unnoticed: a gesture at the edge of a frame, an unexpected glance, the distance between two people, a fleeting expression, or a moment of connection within everyday life. He photographs instinctively, without imposing a story on what unfolds in front of him. Sometimes the image is immediately apparent; at other times, its meaning reveals itself later. Across Havana, New York, Naples, and elsewhere, his photographs reveal humor, tenderness, contradiction, dignity, and humanity in moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed. As Casadevall explains, “What matters most is often what goes unnoticed. That is what I photograph.”

That way of seeing became the foundation for We Still Have the Soul / Aún nos queda el alma, the profound photographic journey that brings together nearly three decades of photographing Havana. Published by La Fábrica in 2025, the photobook was curated by Chema Conesa and features a foreword by acclaimed Cuban novelist Leonardo Padura. The first edition sold out in less than two months, followed by an English-language international edition released in 2026. The work has received international recognition, including the 2026 BiFoto Award for We Still Have the Soul, as well as recognition from the Berlin Photo Awards, Street Photographers Foundation Awards, and World Street Photo Awards. The project has also been presented through an international programme that includes Photo London, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, PHotoESPAÑA, Pinta Buenos Aires, KYOTOGRAPHIE, Berlin Photo Awards, BiFoto Fest, and other international photography platforms.

Now, after nearly three decades of photographing Havana, Casadevall brings the work born from that journey back to Miami for his first presentation during Miami Art Week. At Red Dot Miami 2026, he will present works from his long-term photographic exploration of Havana, including The Ballerina and the Flag and Longing for Another Way of Life. In one, a young ballerina stands before a Cuban flag painted on a Havana wall; in the other, a young man kisses an American flag. Together, the photographs carry a visual dialogue between place and possibility, belonging and longing, while leaving their meaning open to the viewer. Miami therefore holds a particular place in this story—a place from which Casadevall first discovered Havana, and to which he now returns with the photography born from years of journeys, observation, human connection, and an extraordinary archive of the city and its people.

At Red Dot Miami, Luis Casadevall will bring his long-term photographic exploration of Havana to Miami Art Week, presenting a body of work shaped by years of observation, human connection, and a commitment to making visible what is often felt but rarely seen. Red Dot Miami will take place December 2–6, 2026, at Mana Wynwood, with Luis Casadevall at Booth 100.

For more information visit www.luiscasadevallphoto.com

Follow Luis Casadevall on Instagram @casadevall.luis