O
n Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive I’ve
seen drunk girls hitting other
drunk girls, and I’ve seen men high
on whatever they could afford, zombie-
walking with their mouths and eyes wide
open amid the tourists. I’ve seen partyers
sprawled on the pavement just a few feet
from the Villa Casa Casuarina, the former
Versace mansion.
I’ve seen groups of women wearing fake
eyelashes as long and thick as a broom, and
flashing miniature bras, and smoking
marijuana by a palm tree in the park, next
to families going to the beach. I’ve seen five
girls standing on the back of a white
open-air Jeep twerking in their underwear
toward the street.
My photographs, taken in August, cap-
ture South Beach immersed in this un-
tamed party mood with the menace of the
delta variant as backdrop. They document
young women enjoying the summer after
more than a year of confinement. Travel-
ing from around the country, they made
the most of their return to social life by
showing off their style and skin, wearing
their boldest party attire. I was drawn to
the fearlessness of their outfits and their
confidence; I wanted to show how these
women identify themselves and wish to be
perceived, a year and a half after covid-19
changed the world.Lucía Vázquez is a journalist and photographer
based in New York and Buenos Aires.A visitor to Miami Beach, Fla. She was
traveling with a large group of friends to honor
and celebrate the birthday of her sister, who
died in January.Defiant
G lamour
After long months of covid confinement,
a fearless return to 2019 in Miami Beach
52TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUCÍA VÁZQUEZ