Venezuelan Youth: A Portrait of Lightness and Hope

Published by Guest Edition, Venezuelan Youth The collection of photographs taken by Silvana Trevale between 2016 and 2025 depicts a multi-faceted country with an honesty and directness that only children and teenagers can possess.

After leaving his country of origin, Treville saw the project as both a tribute and an act of understanding that transcended mainstream narratives of suffering and suffering. Over the years, the photographer spends time with the subjects she depicts, building trust and long-term relationships with them. Faced with dire living conditions such as extreme shortages of food and medicine, resulting in the death of many around them, Venezuelan children transform from innocence to extreme sobriety, leading to the stoic attitudes we are more accustomed to encountering in adults.

Although Venezuelan Youth A project driven by Trevale’s nostalgia for her homeland and the anger and sadness she felt at the difficulties her people faced there, her work transforms these negative emotions into a strength that allows her to interpret reality with hope, understanding and joy.

PhotoVogue community pillar Silvana Trevale discusses her project and the process behind it.

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When portraying young people, how do you find a balance between the levity and harshness of the environments they grew up in?

Hope and belief in a better future for themselves and Venezuela shaped many of the stories as I approached this project through young people and their eyes, filled with innocence and hope that everything would get better, but also their strength to continue to hope despite reality. In many cases, their lives can be very complicated, but when I talk to them, you can still feel their innocence and joy, even when they face very difficult times.