About OPUS MIAMI

Mission Statement

Opus Miami is a Miami-based photography contest designed to involve the whole community of Miami. Opus hopes to highlight the beauty, culture, and diversity of the city while bringing people of all different backgrounds together using photography. The contest is meant to be accessible for photographers of many different skill levels. Anyone can participate using a personal camera or even just a smartphone to capture the beauty of Miami. All participants' photos will be showcased on the Opus website and shown throughout Instagram. Winners of the contest will receive further opportunities for showcasing and exhibiting their work locally. We want to help build a better community and do that through photography and showing why we should help maintain this beautiful city.

This contest was made to highlight the beauty of Miami and bring all of us together. With so many bad things happening in the world right now, Opus Miami wants to create a space where photography can take over and highlight what we all love about this amazing city. This contest will help to bring us together and see the true reason why we all love this city so much. It all revolves around the Pinecrest Library which is a strong part of the community. The library is a place where we go to learn and better ourselves and a perfect place to showcase the beautiful talent of the people of Miami.

 

Founder’s Bio

Cooper Menachem is a junior at Miami Palmetto Senior High. He has participated in the Locust Art Lab which exhibited photos on a mural that exhibited Miami’s beauty. As a photographer he enjoys taking photos of Miami’s skyline and the different peoples that live in Miami.  He was inspired to do this contest to showcase all of Miami’s beauty and why the city is so special. 

I thought of this contest through my love of community and photography. I got into photography when I was in 6th grade. At that time I was being bullied very badly by the kids at my school and this made me feel isolated and alone. Through that isolation I stumbled upon photography as I looked at the world around me and the beauty within it. I started taking photos from my iPhone of anything I could as I tried to see the world in a new perspective. Photography took me out of that isolation I was in and had me looking at the world through a new lens. After that, for that past 5 years of my life, I have been taking photos when I felt inspiration strike me. This passion for photography brought me to Locust Miami art lab in the summer of 2020 where I teamed up with 15 students across Miami and created an art exhibit. The idea of bringing students from all over Miami to create art made me think about a way where art students across Miami could have their own photography exhibit and show their own love for community. This brought me to making Opus Miami and furthering my love for photography and the city of Miami.

 

Exhibition Space

 

Pinecrest Library is a local branch of the Miami-Dade public library system located in Pinecrest Gardens, FL. Thousands of students and community members utilize the resources of the Pinecrest Library to educate themselves and come together as a community. Pinecrest Library offers programs and events open to all community members, and Opus Miami is proud to partner with them as our exhibition space. See https://mdpls.org/branch-pinecrest for more information and to view their calendar of ongoing and upcoming events.