Photography by Ryan Pfluger in Los Angeles on October 1, 2015. Styling by Michael Cook. Groomer: Harper at Exclusive Artists Management. Turtleneck by Tommy Hilfiger.
Having worked as a live-in nanny for a Beverly Hills family, Ramiro Gomez is acutely aware of how domestic workers are treated. He finds inspiration and meaning in the most quotidian juxtapositions, such as a gardener with a leaf blower in front of the iconic Paul Smith store on Melrose Avenue, or the figure of a housecleaner inserted in one of legendary artist David Hockney's 1960s Southern California scenes. As a young, gay Latino man living with hemophilia, Gomez understands what it means to be an outsider and feels his artwork is building bridges between multiple communities. He married his partner of nine years in 2015, but he hopes the momentum from marriage equality presses on. "We need to continue the efforts to include those on the margins, the undocumented members of the community," he says, "to push for human rights, not just marriage rights."
