The Careyes Series comes from Ramirez’s time visiting Mexico's Pacific coast. He observed residents reusing consumer objects like cracked plastic bottles and brooms. Garbage bags, dying flowers, and the remains of meals serve as a memento mori in Ramirez’s work, reflections on life’s fleeting nature. Ramirez writes that photographing these repurposed objects acts to reflect on how “consumer culture permeates every aspect of our daily lives” and how Americans are not only “responsible for a significant portion of the world’s waste, but they are slow to any significant reforms in their consumption practice.” Ramirez pushes the viewer to consider American consumer culture and its environmental impact through this series.