When I first saw the work of Camilo Ramirez, I was attracted to the pictures’ coexisting qualities of humor and a concern for the environment. In his series The Gulf, Ramirez “[traversed] a path from the southernmost point of the US in Key West, Florida to the Mexican-American border town of Brownsville, Texas,” spending several years and traveling 5,500 miles of coastal roads along five states to explore the ways in which at the same time the land is revered and its natural resources are abused. In Between Realities, the artist takes a similar look at places where visitors can gain a sense of having escaped the real world and been immersed in one that feels more natural, but is in actuality just as manufactured, synthetic, and illusory.
From the artist’s statement for Between Realities: To suspend our disbelief is to submit to an alternate reality. Theme parks, fairs, zoos, arcades and other physical institutions of entertainment offer just the kind of illusion necessary for this escape. Growing up largely in Florida, where tourism is the state’s largest industry, the cultural emphasis on recreation was permeating and inescapable. I became aware that the allure of these attractions is as present as the willingness to submit to a prescribed experience. By photographing the intersection of a designed fantasy with its necessary facade, I seek to explore how imagination and truth intertwine under the weight of observation.
From “The Gulf”
From “Between Realities”
Visit artist's site: camramirez.com
Found via: Lenscratch
Posted February 1st, 2017
