Two local photographers find beauty in the ordinary

HOUSTON – “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things.”

Pam Beesly, from the highly-touted sitcom The Office, said that line during the finale of the show, but it also sums up the current photography work of Stephen ‘Steve’ Ramos and Steven ‘Cheeze’ Martinez.

The two local Bayoucitians showcased their latest photography artwork earlier this month at White Cup Ent., the clothing and apparel shop located at 7203 Navigation Blvd. in Houston’s Magnolia Park neighborhood.

The gallery, the second for Martinez and the first for Ramos, featured photos from what the duo described as “capturing a moment” of ordinary life.

And while the two share many similarities — like being self-proclaimed introverts and having an affinity for the beauty in the ordinary — the photographers arrived at this point in their careers through different means.

Art therapy

Creating art — whether it be drawing, photography, or animation — is a form of therapy for Ramos, an army veteran who served three years during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“It’s calming for me in that it’s the biggest stress reliever I have,” Ramos said, who got the itch to showcase his work after attending Martinez’s first gallery, also held at White Cup Ent.

But the 36-year-old has always been drawn to the visual arts, going as far back as his childhood and before he even started school. Ramos remembers pestering his mom to teach him how to draw a stick man.

“So she drew a [stick] person for me,” Ramos said. “And I remember the feeling that it evoked. There was an excitement and I felt really happy. A really good feeling.”

From that point on, Ramos was hooked. He would doodle on anything he could get his hands on, but the reserved Ramos would keep the art to himself.

And wherever Ramos went, so too did his knack for drawing and sketching.

Ramos, now a father of one, spent three years in the army in the early 2000s and served during Operation Iraqi Freedom. When he had downtime, the veteran would start doodling away.

And his compatriots took notice.

“I noticed that whenever I went to a new unit, people found out that I could draw and they would say, ‘hey, we want you to draw this mural up on the wall,'” Ramos said. “So I ended up doing paintings for colonels and other little things here and there.”

Even during his army days, Ramos never gave two thoughts about being a professional. He simply liked the process of drawing and sketching. After three years, Ramos’ stint with the army ended but his love of art only increased.

Looking for something else to do and “trying to think about how to use art as a means of therapy,” Ramos set forth a plan to improve his drawings and started by taking animation and digital media classes at Houston Community College.

“I lacked [the skill to see] how people could maneuver, or how they look when the light hits on them,” Ramos said. “I feel a lot of times my drawings would come out flat and I wouldn’t understand it.”

It would take picking up a camera, that Ramos began to understand.

“I can capture that moment and freeze it,” Ramos said of his photography. “And then go back to it later and look at it. I can study it.”

Ramos does more than study it, he analyzes the light. The angles of the location. And so on. And so on.

The freelance photographer uses the information he learns and applies it to his business NX Gen Media. A company that does photography work with a focus on video and animation.

Art, passion, and work

Martinez, 33, has always been an observant person, going back to his elementary school days. He says he remembers his friends doodling in classes, everything from Sonic The Hedgehog to Superman.

Martinez tried to emulate his friends but soon found out he couldn’t draw to save his life. But that didn’t deter him from the visual arts.

The 33-year-old said he vividly remembers watching Terminator 2: Judgement Day during his youth and observing everything in the movie with an eagle-eye.

The movie – along with his love of video games — sparked in him the observant nature that would suit him well as a photographer later in life.

Martinez, who grew up on Houston’s north side, has been working warehouse jobs since 2005. At that time, being a photographer wasn’t a blip on his mind.

Four years later, in 2009, Martinez would dive into photography. He said one day he picked up a camera — one had had own for some time — and started driving around Houston snapping photos.

Martinez hasn’t stopped taking photos since. And he still remembers the moment it started to click for him.

Before Martinez took that drive in 2009, he had taken the camera out on a couple of sporadic occasions. One of which propelled him on this journey he’s on.

“I remember I took it to an abandoned field and it had a bunch of cars there,” Martinez said, who ended up taking a series of shots at that field. “That was one of the time when I was like, ‘oh shit.'”

That reaction was Martinez realizing the emotions and feelings that shooting photos gave him. A feeling he kept on chasing.

While Ramos took the class route to further his artistic skills, Martinez took a different route.

“I learned from YouTube and stuff like that,” Martinez said. “But most of it was just picking it up and going out there.”

The 33-year-old, even now, likes heading out on drives and snapping photos, sometimes he does it a means to find solitude.

“I have this fascination with people in solitude,” Martinez said. “Something about solitude compels me. It gets me.”

Ten years after Martinez first took photography, what keeps him going Martinez said nothing compels him like photography.

Even now, as he still grinds away at warehouse jobs, he envisions a future where he’s immersed 24/7 with photography.

“If I can make a living out of this, man, I can’t even imagine,” Martinez said. “That’s always the goal because even working these warehouse-type jobs since 2005, my head has always been somewhere else.”

M23 Spring Photo Expo

Both photographers have a fixation on photographing — in black and white — the everyday, mundane, day-to-day, hustle-and-bustle, aspect of life in Houston

Ramos said taking black and white photos of everyday life makes the photos and moment feel timeless.

“To me, it’s like a classic,” Ramos said. “Especially shooting in high ISO’s and getting grains in there, it reminds me of film.”

‘Cheeze’, on the other hand, said shooting photos in black and white felt like second nature to him. He added that he was inspired by photographers from the 70s who shot rock bands.

For both Ramos and Martines, Saturday’s the showcase could be one of many to come from these up-and-coming photographers.