Camilo Ramirez
The Gulf
This work explores the entire length of the U.S. Gulf Coast and the way its varied history, economics, environment and culture intertwine to reveal a simultaneous reverence and abuse of its fetishized natural resources. As I photographed along the southern edge of the Gulf Coast states most affected by the oil spill during the BP oil spill of 2010, I saw the contradictions in the economic, environmental and social landscape of the area as it coped with the negative impact of events created by an industry on which it depends. As I travelled across state lines, I saw the land and people change along with the concentration of the major industries in the region. Whether it was fishing, energy, agriculture or tourism, I discovered each place has a specialized industry and a character driven by a simultaneous dependency and exploitation of the land and sea. At the height of the disaster, millions of people who made their living from the ocean and live along the coast were impacted when the U.S. government declared a ‘No Fishing Zone’ closing thousands of square miles of open ocean as well as coastlines in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and my home state of Florida. In the Summer of 2014, I returned to the area, this time slowly covering the entire US Gulf Coast from Naples, Florida to the southern point of Texas over six weeks and crossing more than 5000 miles. These latest photographs further explore the nuances of the region and also include the broad use of land, animals and natural resources as they pertain to industry and recreation. It was my intent to find and photograph the most prevalent emblems and that are perpetuated throughout the region. In my view, the traditions, attitudes and livelihoods that are passed down through multiple generations are wound tightly into the fabric of the place and are often visible as evidence of the history, political attitudes and lifestyles of those who live there.
Bio
Camilo Ramirez was born in Santa Monica, California and raised in Bogota, Colombia as well as various cities throughout California, Texas and in Miami, Florida. He holds a B.F.A. in Photography from Florida International University and an M.F.A. in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is currently on view at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, and in a solo exhibition at the Bromfield Gallery with upcoming solo exhibitions this year at Roxbury Community College, ArtsWorcester and the Vermont Center for Photography. He was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Grant in 2009 and an Emerson Faculty Advancement Fund Grant in 2014. This year he was awarded an Emerson Consumer Awareness Project Grant, a ArtWorcester Biennial Juror’s Prize, a Review Santa Fe 100 invitation, a Lensculture 50 Emerging Talent Award, and is the winner of the BOAAT Press Photography Competition. His work has been featured on CNN, The Boston Globe, Aint-Bad Magazine and in an upcoming limited edition monograph to be published by BOAAT Press in 2016. Camilo currently lives and works in Boston, MA where he serves as SPE Northeast Regional Vice-Chair and Assistant Professor of Photography at Emerson College.
Related links
I admire these photographs for their expressiveness and color and would like to congratulate Camilo on achieving this.
However, I must say that they did not make a impression on me when I first looked at them here on BURN: it was only when I chanced upon the series once again on LENSCULTURE that I appreciated them — the problem is that here they look faded, lacking in contrast and saturation, compared with how they appear on the other site. I don’t know whether the problem lies with the WordPress system or in how they were uploaded, but feel strongly that BURN needs to fix this, if justice is to be done to the images presented in the essays here.
As in the cases of many other ones, I find that the artist’s statement is less engaging than it could be: what is says doesn’t really show up in the photographs — I would prefer something more personal that directly connects with the photographs.
You’re absolutely correct, Mitch. The same images have much more snap on Lensculture (thank you for introducing me), most vividly dramatized, I think, by comparing the printed plaques in the deer-mount pictures. In his 2016 New Year’s greeting David did say the site is broken. Maybe this is one of the problems he referred to and one Burn seeks to fix. Another possibility is that Camilo Ramirez processed the Lensculture images after the did the Burn images and just did a better job the second time around. This is what I would suspect.
As to the images themselves, I too admire them and congratulate Camilo. It must have been an interesting journey for him. One difficulty I feel they face is that while there is a certain, dreamy, strangeness to them that once would have been most striking, that sort of strangeness seems to have become commonplace in photography – maybe because just about everybody is taking pictures of everything now and the world is a strange place. The only element of this essay that really says “Gulf Coast” to me is the title.
Wonderful, ill head across to Lensculture to have a look.
I agree with Bill that the images were processed differently on the two sites, but I hate to categorize the Lensculture version as “better,” certainly not as whole. More dramatic, I think, is a better way to phrase it.
That’s a conundrum I often grapple with. Often, I like edits that are subtle in ways that do not “pop,” but it can be difficult to stay with them when it’s so easy to adjust the contrast and perhaps the color balance to get that popular effect. The pics with pop just look so much better on first glance, but I often find deeper rewards in images that have been processed more eccentrically. In this case, I prefer the less contrasty version of the person in the green wave on burn to the more conventionally processed version on Lens Culture. The muscle car in the smoke or fog, however, I think works a lot better with the contrast on Lens culture. I’m of two minds on the horse photo, but think taking some of the blue out of it like he did on Lens Culture ultimately worked better. Interesting topic, imo.
Regarding the collection of photographs, however, I’m with Bill on the disconnected nature between the stated subject and the content. Kinda been a string of these stream of consciousness type stories of late. Nothing wrong with that, but speaking broadly, I’d like to see at least the occasional nod and wink in these things. I fear current documentary photography suffers from too much fucking earnestness, as Mallory Knox might say.
FROSTFROG/MW
>>> One difficulty I feel they face is that while there is a certain, dreamy, strangeness to them that once would have been most striking, that sort of strangeness seems to have become commonplace in photography – maybe because just about everybody is taking pictures of everything now and the world is a strange place. The only element of this essay that really says “Gulf Coast” to me is the title.<<>>…I’m with Bill on the disconnected nature between the stated subject and the content. Kinda been a string of these stream of consciousness type stories of late. Nothing wrong with that, but speaking broadly, I’d like to see at least the occasional nod and wink in these things.<<<
I agree with what both of you say, which is what I meant by the discordance between the artist's statement and the visual content of this essay. However, this may simply come from the current essay having been selected from a longer series or a book project, rather than having been crafted as a self-standing portfolio. That seems to have been the issue of some other BURN essays. The photographer may often need to produce a book project, an exhibition and a portfolio: each of these need to be able to stand on their own to be effective — and often that is not easy to accomplish for a portfolio, the shortest of the three forms.
On the "dreamy strangeness" and "stream of consciousness type stories," as well as the apparent lack of a clear identification with the Gulf Coast: perhaps this comes from viewers expecting to see "documentation" when they are seeing "depiction." My feeling is that this essay is one of depiction, which could be clarified in the artist's statement.
In my own work, I'm interested in depiction. But there are different types of depiction: one is telling a story, i.e., a fictional narrative that represents a view of reality — the prime example of this is, of course, some of the recent work of DAH, such as his "from a true story" and his current work, "Beach Games."
Then, there is depiction that is not based on a narrative — work sequenced on a poetic basis, notably, such as the early books of Ralph Gibson, as well as the recent work of Portuguese photographer Paulo Nozolino. I've become particularly interested in Nozolino just now because his poetic sequencing is based on content and expression, rather than on visual or graphic themes
On the look of Camilo Ramirez’s images here on BURN vs on LENSCULTURE: I’d be surprised if the difference comes from different processing. It would be good if Camilo or someone from BURN could address this question.
I like the anti-aircraft gun. Very retro.
So much of how it comes across depends on the device it is viewed upon. I originally looked at it on my MacBook Pro while in the field. There, the Burn version came off a little dull compared to the LENSCULTURE version – as stated above. Now I am back home, viewing it on my iMac. The Burn version has snapped to life. The LENSCULTURE version appears over-processed.
It has become impossible to present an essay or photograph to the world as we would like it to be, no matter how hard we work to get it “just right.”
Bill, I think they changed it to the Lens Culture edit. I’m looking at the same monitor and it’s definitely different, unless mine had temporarily developed a blue cast the first time I looked at it and then immediately fixed itself.
Anyhoo, to me it still seems weird that two publications would run the same story simultaneously. Used to be, most of the quality publications wouldn’t even accept simultaneous submissions (which I always thought was bs, btw). Speaking generally, as I don’t know the payment situation for this essay at either publication, I suppose now that most don’t pay, they can’t really keep someone from publishing elsewhere, much less submitting work hither and yon and racking up all the publishing credits one can. I don’t know if it’s more about the exposure or another notch on the VITA, but either way, at least it’s some consolation in lieu of cash. Not making any judgements here, just observing the action from the peanut gallery.
Mike: “I suppose now that most don’t pay, they can’t really keep someone from publishing elsewhere, much less submitting work hither and yon and racking up all the publishing credits one can. I don’t know if it’s more about the exposure or another notch on the VITA, but either way, at least it’s some consolation in lieu of cash.”
Your words make me think of when I was university student, majoring in communications, emphasis on photojournalism. Periodically, faculty would come to us students with one project or another that someone in the university wanted done and ask us students to shoot it – for experience and exposure, not pay. At first I bought into it, but in time saw it for the scam it was.
And now, 40 plus years later, its happening all over again and it feels like there is little choice but to go along with it – to a degree, anyway.
I like the horse and the youngster in the wave. I enjoyed this essay but am not awestruck by any means.