In direct opposition to the commonly held belief that photography offers us a truth through being able to record and document objectively, Isidro Ramirez argues that photography is always limited and subjective.
While Isidro acknowledges the argument that photography has some validity as a means to document our lives, he contends it is essentially a partial media that limits our vision and understanding of the world. Factors such as the subjectivity of the photographer, the constraints of looking through the lens and its inability to go beyond the surface inhibit photography's ability to give us anything more than a hint as to the truth of what we are looking at.
Over the last four years Isidro has explored this theme in all his projects. While disparate in their subject matter they have all explored the limits of photographic representation. The result has been to create bodies of work that seek an interpretative aesthetic closer to painting than the traditionally documentary properties of his chosen medium.
Isidro first studied photography at Oxford Brookes University before doing his BA in Editorial Photography at the University of Brighton and an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
His work has been exhibited in both the UK and internationally including the Viewfinder gallery, London; Photofusion Gallery, London; Modern Art Oxford; Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London; Galerie Hunchentoot, Berlin and the 2002 photography festival, Photoespana, Madrid.
A number of his projects have also been published including "Roundabouts" in Mouth to Mouth issue #2; "Fire Drill Houses" in Exit issue #4; "Classrooms" and "Life is a Dream" in Next Level and "What We Don't See" as part of Crude Metaphors for the Moth House in Hotshoe Magazine.
Isidro has been a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths, Photographers Gallery and took part in "Principles and Space" an invited artist workshop at Tate Britain. He currently teaches at Havering College and Kingston University.
