Background
Ricardo Gomez Perez was born on May 27, 1951 in Caracas, Venezuela.
Ricardo Gomez Perez was born on May 27, 1951 in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 1972, Ricardo Gomez studied gravure, design, serigraphy, and photography at "Taller 4 Rojo" in Bogotá, Colombia. He moved to London and bought a Nikkormat. Later, Ricardo Gomez traveled to Zurich, where he shot his first black and white photographs, a series of empty landscapes filled with snow.
In 1974, Ricardo Gomez worked during the day in a vegetarian restaurant and studied part-time at the Sir John Cass College of Art in London. There, under the guidance of Mick Williamson, Gómez Pérez began to build a portfolio of photographs taken in Zurich. Those pictures began a portfolio, which he would later, in 1976, present for acceptance to the London College of Printing. Later in 1976, he also worked with Charles Harbutt at The Photographer's Place in Derbyshire.
In 1979, Gómez Pérez finished his studies at London College of Printing. During his final exhibit at the college, he met Brian Griffin, who suggested that they begin working together. The pair they went on to do work for several music and rock groups, including Iggy Pop, Lene Lovich, Echo and the Bunnymen, Ultravox, Peter Gabriel, and Ian Dury. During this period, he met Andreas Müller-Pohle, who asked him to be a correspondent for European Photography Magazine, and he also met Richard Misrach at the Photographer's Gallery.
Until 1982, he worked as a freelance photographer in London, primarily for Management Today, where he was guided by art director Roland Schenk. At this time, he began to take portraits of businessmen and editorials for several London publications.
In 1982, after ten years in London, Gómez Pérez moved to Paris. There he met Graciela Iturbide and Pedro Meyer, and all three exhibited together at Studio 666 in Paris as part of a Latin American photography exhibition.
In 1984, with the support of David Balsells and Chantal Grande of Galería Forvm, Ricardo Gomez moved to Tarragona, Spain. The trio then exhibited throughout Spain. While there, he was the curator of "Semana International de la Fotografia", in Guadalajara, Spain. Subsequently, he traveled to Lisbon, Portugal where he stayed with his friend Paulo Nozolino. In 1987, he decided to go back to Caracas after 12 years of being abroad, to spend time with his mother.
In 1987 Gómez Pérez began work with Ricardo Jimenez as a freelance photographer team, which they named: RICAR-2. Together they worked taking portraits of Venezuelan businessmen, and later started to work for Revista Gerente, thus producing a large portfolio of portraits.
In 1992, Gómez Pérez limited edition portfolio, Memento, in collaboration with Andreas Muller-Pohle, Joan Fontcuberta, John Webb, Philippe Scholz-Ritterman, Arno Jansen, and Bernard Plossu, which was dedicated to the memory of a common friend, Derek Bennet. Later that year, Gómez Pérez was invited to Fotofest, a photography fair in Houston, Texas. He was invited to the fair again in 1994, at which he attended The Global Environment exhibit. He later received support from Polaroid to work on a series of black and white photographs, and he later, separately, began a series of nudes and portraits of women.
In 1997, Gómez Pérez curated the first exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe at the Museo Alejandro Otero in Caracas.
At present, he lives with his family in Caracas, and works as a freelance photographer under the firm RICAR-2 with Ricardo Jiménez. He also continues to work on his personal artwork.
In 1991, Gómez Pérez's first son with his wife, Gisela Viloria, was born and named Mauricio. Two years later, in July 1993, Samuel and Nicolás, his twin sons, were born.