MIAMI, FLA.- Celebrated photographer Alessandro Sarno brings the places, faces and stories of Miami to life in his latest coffee table book, Miami: Contemporary Visions from a Tropical Jungleland by Miami publisher Giusto Libri with cover art by acclaimed artist Carlos Betancourt.

Alessandro Sarno has built a global following with his collection of coffee table books and photographic guides of the Bahamas: Eleuthera: The Garden of Freedom, Exumas: The Kingdom of Blue,  Cat Island: Diamonds and Rust, Exuma Cays: Land & Sea Park and his travel guide, White Bull on the Highway.

Sarno’s Jungleland is an intoxicating addition to his publications and is a collection of tropical visions, poetry, and QR-accessible audio recordings from HistoryMiami Museum’s oral history project, Miami Stories, making it a full-spectrum experience of first-person narratives about the city’s past, present and future.

What began as a collection of photographs taken over the course of 15 years has become a love letter to Miami by the Italian-born artist to his adoptive home where readers are invited to delve deep into the city’s unassuming corners, meet the characters who call the city home and explore the images that reflect Sarno’s personal relationship with the city. “I have loved Miami way before I stepped on its soil for the first time in 1993”, says Sarno. “I fell in love watching Miami Vice. The water, the bridges, the causeways, the Ferraris, the architecture, the neon lights, the bodegas, the groves—I loved everything. To me, it was an exotic tropical jungle land. Today I feel exactly the same way.”

Drawing inspiration from his solo travels, with his camera as his only companion, the self-professed ‘Lonesome Photographer’ captures a unique timelessness in his painterly, dreamlike images while his eye sees the present as if it were already the past.

Through this looking glass of photography, Sarno has captured influential moments in time including the establishment of Little Bahamas; the allure of Miami Beach’s beginnings; the reinvigoration of Cervecería La Tropical, the Historic Hampton House, the tale of Miami Seaquarium’s orca, Lolita, the work of activist Golden Eagle, the incredible underwater world beneath the city’s urban development and many more.

"Miami has always been a tale of (more than) two cities: haves and have-nots, natives and immigrants, past and future, paradise and swamp. That dichotomy, tribalism, and allure are captured vividly, vibrantly, and occasionally, tragically by Alessandro’s penetrating eye” notes Cocaine Cowboys filmmaker, Billy Corben.

Jungleland also features stories and commentary from notable Miami residents including fashion icon Bárbara Hulanicki and celebrity restaurateur Michelle Bernstein who says “this is an epic tale of a fascinating city-our city-and its evolutionary narrative. His images flood my senses with memories and every decade of my life here in South Florida.”

The book’s foreword is written by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation president, Alberto Ibarguen. “Jungleland made me smile” says Ibarguen. “It’s a work of art by a photographer of unusual talent, a pleasure. I recognized my town and saw the jungle we came from and the ones we’ve layered on top. And then it struck me that it’s as much a work of anthropology as photography.”

Adding to Jungleland’s narrative is poetry by Presidential Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco and The Biscayne Poet, Oscar Fuentes whose mesmerizing verses will illicit nostalgia from anyone who has ever spent time within the Magic City. “You won’t find all the iconic and most known tourist places”, says Sarno. “On the contrary, it’s a book about the authenticity of everyday life scattered throughout Miami’s vibrant and colorful neighborhoods; what you see in one moment is gone the moment after.”