Everyone knows the party never happened if there weren’t any photographers present to document it. With only a handful of decent ones left still circling the nightlife scene, the abrupt disappearance of MiamiMayhem.com in December 2011 was like a death knell for Miami itself. That having been said, Mr. Mayhem is back.
The RIP – Memoir Video that haunted MiamiMayhem.com for months is no more! In its place? A brand new super dope redesigned website. Is this an April Fools joke? To get to the bottom of it I hit up the the man himself.
So, the last photos I recall seeing on Miami Mayhem were from Entresol’s performance at The Vagabond in November 2011. I know we all had a helluva good time but daaamn, what happened to you? Really bad hangover?
Haha! Yeah, I’m sure I had a bad hangover after that night but nothing really happened to me. I just thought I should take a break and figure out what direction I really wanted to go with my photography.
What made you decide to pull the plug on Miami Mayhem? Have you been plotting since then an April Fools Day reluanch date as a practical joke to your followers?
Yeah, April fools! Actually, when Miami Mayhem hit it’s 2 year anniversary mark it became clear to me that we needed a new website design.
Tell us about the new website, why did you kill the articles and replace event galleries with a portfolio?
I really just wanted to keep it strictly focused on my photos. I felt like there was no need to have a section for events since most people are over saturated with events already from Facebook and of course, all the annoying emails from promoters.
How did you decide what photos to include on your portfolio? Are these the same photos we saw on the old Miami Mayhem?
Well, I believe that less is more and so for my portfolio I went back to my catalog and chose my favorite photos from the past. I focused mostly on the artists — the DJs and the celebrity shots instead of the usual party photos.
So the answer is yes, there is a good amount of photos from the last two years. There are some newer photos that I have taken recently including some taken during this years Miami Music Week with more to come in the next week or so.
What about the videos?
As far as the videos were concerned my intention was never to evolve into a videographer but I did a couple of videos in the past for certain venues and I still wanted my viewers and fans to be able to go back and view them. And yes, I will do some more videos in the near future.
I noticed you also tightened up the Miami Mayhem logo and added Photography by Daniel De Las Casas. Miami Mayhem was already directly associated with yourself wasn’t it? Why did you decide to do this?
Well, I didn’t want to change the name of the website since its already well-known in Miami but I do think that at this point in my career I need to promote and market myself using my real name.
Whats next for Daniel De Las Casas? What are your longterm goals for Miami Mayhem or other?
Ha! I knew that question was coming! I don’t want to reveal too much on what I have coming up in the future and what I am planning but I will tell you that I am going to continue to shoot nightlife and events.
How was life without a camera? How did the nightlife treat you?
No complaints here. I feel like I’ve built very good relationships with Poplife and The Overthrow, the two organizations that throw the amazing parties that I love to attend and cover, and because of these strong relationships during the time that I wasn’t taking photos for the website I was still treated with the same respect when I would attend their events.
And of course, I can’t leave out The Vagabond where the first photos were shot and without which Miami Mayhem may never have reached its current level of success or local fame.
Care to share your top 3 personal photos with us taken while Miami Mayhem was in hibernation? C’mon we know there is still some party action shots out there somewhere!
Oh man, yeah, I had a blast shooting HARD & Fools Gold at Grand Central and spent 2 amazing days at sea on a yacht with The Vagabond family where I got some shots of John Digweed & Carl Cox. I’ll admit I’m my worst critic and I won’t say these are the best photos I’ve taken lately but …here they are.
