West Grove Project

University of Miami Professor Emeritus Michael L. Carlebach’s (1945-2023) photojournalism career began in New York and Washington, D.C. Upon coming to Florida, he worked briefly as a staff photographer for the Miami Herald. In 1973, he began teaching at the University of Miami, which launched a thirty-year career in higher education. While working at University of Miami, Dr. Carlebach had taught photojournalism at the School of Communication, reestablished the program in American Studies, and chaired the Department of Art & Art History.

Throughout his life, he remained a sought-after photojournalist with a discerning eye for the subtleties of the human condition and the comic aspects of everyday life. His photographs have been published in Time, People, The Miami Herald, The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and The New York Times. Most of his published books include thorough scholarly histories of photography, such as The Origins of Photojournalism in America and American Photojournalism Comes of Age, both published by Smithsonian Institution Press, while Sunny Land showcases his startling, humorous black and white images of the lesser documented “margins” of South Florida society. He remained active as a photographer, scholar, and writer for most of his life and was especially interested in illuminating the lives of people outside the glare of contemporary media and finding and memorializing extraordinary moments that would otherwise be lost.