Two Venezuelan boys walking through a forest of vultures after a fishing trip: this is the image that defines Silvana Trevale's project on Venezuelan youth. The photographer, who left her home country after a violent robbery, explains how she returned to capture the beauty and resilience of young people growing up in a nation in crisis.
Leaving Venezuela
"My parents encouraged me to leave Venezuela," Trevale recalls. "The situation in the country at that time, the mid-2010s, had started to get really hard, with food and medicine shortages – and violent robberies were becoming a regular thing." She had already seen her mother robbed and had a gun held to her head, but such incidents had become normalized. Trevale was fortunate to be able to go to England to study at Huddersfield University, but she felt the dislocation common among immigrants: "not belonging, questioning who I was and where I was from. I understood what I was losing, too, and it hurt."
Returning to the Beach
Despite leaving, Trevale remains deeply connected to Venezuela. Whenever she visits her parents, they go to the beach. "My whole family loves the ocean: it's how I spent a lot of my childhood," she says. She started photographing there, spending time with young people and giving something back. "The kids had so much fun during those shoots."
The Photograph
During a 2018 visit, Trevale joined a goodbye trip with friends who were about to leave the country. They drove to Playa Medina, an extraordinary beach with Japanese forest grass and vultures. "I would wake up at 5am and there was this super soft light, with the water this brown-green colour. It's such a surreal place." One morning, she saw two brothers returning from fishing with their father. "I could see they were tired, fed up with having to help their dad, but they were also playful with each other." She captured a single image on her Mamiya camera. "Back in Huddersfield, when I saw the photo, I thought: 'Wow, this is it.'"
The Project: Venezuelan Youth
The photograph became the starting point for Trevale's project, Venezuelan Youth, which explores what it means to grow up in a country where the main ambition of most young people is to leave. "I was trying to find something between this harsh reality and a feeling of innocence. That surreal space, with the two of them looking so beautiful, the brotherhood, shaped my whole project for the next 10 years." The project has now been published in a book.
Capturing Identity
Trevale returned to Venezuela twice a year, always seeking to connect with young people. As the project evolved, she collaborated with Venezuelan creative directors to preserve cultural identity. "Fashion became another element, as well as other aspects, such as my pictures of the Joropo, a traditional dance that is being lost." She wanted to show Venezuela through a different lens: "to break away from any harsh kind of imagery, without dismissing the problems – to show the personal encounters I had with kids, to show what beauty we have."
A Love Letter to Venezuela
"All of us, whether we stayed or left, are marked by the crisis. It's part of who we are," Trevale reflects. "But there are other good things we forget. I am hoping the book brings that back to young people, to remind them that we're strong and resilient, and to celebrate our traditions and our people. I never want to forget where I come from – and this book is my love letter to Venezuela."
Venezuelan Youth is published by Guest Editions.
