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Untitled (Laundry) — Jacqueline Ramirez
"In Plain View" features works by Judith Preston and Jacqueline Ramirez. Preston works with color film and a Holga plastic camera creating dreamlike, nostalgic and wistful imagery. Ramirez's "Real Property" series explores cultural artifacts found within the suburban environment.
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Born in Boston and raised in the New England countryside, I spent a great deal of time outdoors at a young age. This was the beginning of my love of nature and appreciation of the natural world. A logophile also, I pursued a Bachelor of Arts in English at a state college in New Hampshire in the 1970s. It was here, working in the Audio-Visual department making copy slides, that I discovered photography. The work of Minor White and Ansel Adams leapt off the pages of the books I made slides from. The black-and-white images were exquisite and intrigued and enchanted me. I took a beginning class in photography and that was it. I pursued photography on my own for several years, photographing the landscape wherever I lived or visited (Vermont, Oregon, Mexico, Greece) and joining community groups wherever possible. Wanting to immerse myself in the art and craft of the medium I had fallen in love with, graduate school beckoned. Two years at Ohio University and then relocating to San Diego brought me to where I am now—an educator and active photographer.
I began experimenting with black-and-white infrared film for my landscape photographs in order to communicate what I feel is the spiritual quality of nature. Continuing with my interest in landscape photography, I used the Holga plastic camera to explore color representations of the natural world. My interest was in how the introduction of a little piece of plastic in between the viewer and the scene can create an altered reality—a virtual reality—tied to our memories of the past; dream-like, nostalgic, and wistful. Although appreciative of the grand views of nature, I gravitate toward details of the landscape. My current body of work deals with the textures, rhythms, and patterns found in nature.
I received my BFA in English at Keene State College in New Hampshire and my MFA in Photography at Ohio University, Athens. Until my recent retirement, I taught darkroom, digital, and history of photography at several local community colleges.
My interest in landscape photography stems from several sources. I grew up in rural New England, and from an early age spent considerable time in the countryside. And even though I have lived in Southern California for 30-plus years, I still miss the change of the seasons, that first hint of spring in the air, the deeply saturated green of the hills and fields in the late spring and early summer, the crispness of the autumn air, the beauty and stillness of the first snow, and the crunch of ice-cold snow as it is walked on. Another influence is my educational background in traditional black-and-white and color landscape photography.
My current body of work uses the Holga plastic camera to explore color representations of the natural world. I am fascinated by how the introduction of a little piece of plastic in between the viewer and the scene can create an altered reality—virtual memories of the past; dream-like, nostalgic, and wistful.
Jacqueline Ramirez is a San Diego–based artist and educator who has been photographing since high school when she received her first Kodak Instamatic camera. She received a BA in Journalism (Photojournalism emphasis) from SDSU. Inspired by the work of Robert Frank and the creative energy of early punk rock culture, she pursued a spontaneous documentary style which led to further experimentation with pictorial organization, content, and alternative printing and process techniques. She has photographed many notable punk rock artists including the Ramones, Patti Smith, and Richard Hell. Several of her photographs and issues of Substitute, San Diego's first alternative music zine (which she co-edited) are included in I'm Not Like You: Notes from the San Diego Underground at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park—an exhibit which celebrates the independent, uniquely creative spirit that distinguished skate, punk, and hip-hop culture from the 1970s through the 1990s in San Diego.
She received her MFA in Creative Photography from California State University, Fullerton in 1997. Her images are characterized by continual experimentation as well as examination and analysis of ordinary, unremarkable moments and sites which characterize contemporary society. Her cameras of choice include several vintage Diana cameras, Nikon FM, Holga, and iPhone.
She is an educator who believes a beautiful thing is never perfect and "the best teacher is also a student" (fortune cookie message).
The series Real Property is characterized by my interest in cultural artifacts, both personal and public, within the suburban environment. Notions of property, both real and implied, evoke an incongruent psychology of place, as barriers and portals—both real and symbolic—are made visible.
