In the world of creativity, our minds tend to wander. The beauty of photography is the ability to capture this journey. While living in Paris, photographer Ramon Palacios-Pelletier was concentrating his efforts mainly on portraiture. However, during his recent relocation to New York, his work took him in a completely different direction that just came naturally.
Evolving from a deep respect and admiration of the American tradition of photographing it’s ever changing landscape, Ramon brings us “Moving to America,” a reaction to his new surroundings. Inspired by the likes of Walker Evans, Paul Strand, Stephen Shore and Robert Frank, the project is about the contrasts between the city and the countryside.
When asked about his photographic style, Ramon simply replied: “My style is honest and intimate. Timeless and emotional. Precise and finely crafted.”
His intent with this project was to convey the same honest intimacy that he achieves through his portraits. He was very precise, as none of the photos are cropped and he shot with only a 50mm. Ramon explained the biggest challenge, turning a seemingly “cliche” project into his own:
The main challenge here is that this type of project has been done so many times. When I showed the work to Time magazine I started to describe the project to Marie, an associate photo editor at the magazine, and I stopped myself midway and said, “well it’s a cliche, just look at the pictures.” At the end she told me I had succeeded in taking such a cliche and telling it my way. That is the biggest challenge, taking pictures that are interesting and my own when photographing America is something that’s been done so eloquently and abundantly before me.
New York Magazine ran a double page spread on the project, a great “welcome to America” for Ramon! He has received additional positive feedback from Time and Rolling Stone as well, and has yet to pitch the project to galleries.
Ramon hopes to finish this project in the spring with a 10,000 mile trip across America, incorporating portraiture as well.