My photographic practice investigates the tensions between constructed environments and the imaginative projections we cast upon them. Informed by the spatial theories of Lefebvre, Bachelard’s poetics of daydream, and critiques of non-place by Augé and Hayden, my work interrogates how space is produced, inhabited, and psychologically internalized.
I am particularly drawn to urban and peri-urban sites that hover between functionality and ambiguity: roundabouts adorned with local signifiers yet empty of participation, hotel rooms whose uniformity paradoxically hosts countless private histories, or coastal resorts suspended in seasonal inertia. Such spaces become visual inquiries into the disconnect between architectural design and lived experience—between the conceived and the inhabited.
In recent years, my practice has extended into the cities of Southeast Asia, where I continue to explore how globalized urban development intersects with local vernaculars and subtle cultural rhythms. Through these photographic investigations, I seek not merely to document the externalities of place, but to invite a form of spectatorship that is inward and projective. By withholding overt narratives and personal anecdote, I aim to create images that serve as vacant stages—spaces of inner immensity where viewers may inscribe their own memories, associations, and latent desires.
Ultimately, my work proposes that the most authentic landscapes are those we construct within ourselves. The vacant urban sites I photograph, whether in Europe or Southeast Asia, thus operate as catalysts for private reverie—quiet theatres in which each observer becomes the architect of their own internal spaces.
isidroramirez architectural photography architectural photography