South o' the Line
12-oz Tecate in Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico

As the first known work of Ramirez y Borracho, "South o' the Line" is more visually remarkable for what it is not than what it is. Rather than focus his lens on any of Mexico's more renowned natural or historical features, the artist instead has chosen as his canvas a humble barbed-wire fence in the central Mexican state of Morelos.

The composition gives "South o' the Line" an earthy quality that is instantly appealing. Even the smog obscuring the horizon line adds to the accessible nature of the photo, and hints at Ramirez y Borracho's humble origins as a maquiladora worker in a Cuernavaca television plant.

"South o' the Line" was taken with a salvaged camera during one of Ramirez y Borracho's lunch breaks, and the photo won him immediate notice among the country's art community. While some of the early reviews anointing Ramirez y Borracho as the heir to Frida Kahlo or Diego Rivera in the pantheon of Mexican artistry may have been a bit overwrought, there is no denying that "South o' the Line" represents an impressive first work by one of beer photography's most promising auteurs.


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