Published by Guest Editions, Venezuelan Youth gathers photographs that Silvana Trevale shot between 2016 and 2025, a portrait of a multifaceted country through the honesty and directness that only children and adolescents possess.
Having left her country of origin at a young age, Trevale sees this project as both a tribute and an act of understanding it beyond the mainstream narrative of misery and hardship. Throughout the years, the photographer spent time with the subjects she portrayed, building trust and long-term relationships with them. Confronted with harsh life conditions such as extreme food and medicine shortages, causing many deaths around them, Venezuelan children sway from naivety to extreme awareness, leading to a stoic attitude that we’re more used to encountering in adults.
Although Venezuelan Youth is a project driven by Trevale’s nostalgia for her homeland and by the anger and sadness she feels about the difficulties her people face in her home country, her work transforms these negative feelings into a strength that enables her to interpret reality with hope, understanding, and joy.
Pillar of the PhotoReplica Handbag Store community, Silvana Trevale discusses her project and the process behind it.
How do you find balance in portraying youth between lightness and the harshness of the conditions they’re exposed to from an early age?
Hopefulness and the faith of a better future for themselves and for Venezuela shaped a lot of the narrative, as I approached this project through the youth and through their eyes, a mix of innocence, of hoping that everything will be better, but also their strength in continuing to remain hopeful in the reality they’re in. In many situations, their lives would be very complex, but when I spoke to them, you could still perceive that innocence and joy alive, even though they face really harsh times.
That is what shaped and drove the project. I wanted to bring that innocence and keep that lightness of being a kid alive through the images. I feel I was able to do that through the care, hopefulness, and tenderness I approached the project with, because I carry so much love for them and Venezuela.
What aspects of Venezuela became clearer to you after you left, things you couldn’t notice while you were living there?
Especially on this project and working with people in Venezuela, one of the main things that became clear is how much I missed my country. Being far away and having left so young at 17, this heartbreak felt raw and present. I started to miss very small things, the streets of Venezuela, my family and friends, but also the smells of the country and its light. These little details turned to be more important and alive in my mind, shaping what I longed for and needed. The young Venezuelans that I came across each time I went back, our time together became passages to bring back what I had forgotten or missed.
Another thing that became very clear is the widespread misinformation internationally about Venezuela and the situation we are facing. I remember speaking to numerous people about Venezuela, and the information they were receiving through news channels felt very different from the reality my family and the people I met were living. This contrast motivated me to push the project further, to share the experiences of the people and the country I lived and witnessed.
It also became apparent that our traditions are not spoken of or celebrated as much as they should be in my eyes. This is why, in the later years of the project, it developed into a way to document and preserve our traditions, celebrations, music and dance. Honouring the culture and the people who keep it alive and the joy it brings us.
How did you avoid falling into nostalgia for the country your parents lived in?
Because I never lived it myself, that nostalgia is very faint, and it only exists through the memories of my parents. Their recollectsions of Venezuela often feel far removed from my own experiences and from what I see each time I return. I try to avoid getting lost in that nostalgia by being present whenever I am back home and immersing myself in spaces where I meet the people I photograph and listen to their stories.
Even though the realities I encounter are harsh and shape this project, the hopefulness that the youth carry to move forward, and the admiration I feel for them, drives and overshadows what I might feel for a Venezuela that no longer exists. However, there is always a faint nostalgia for what was, what could have been and what isn't.
Could you tell us the story behind one of the pictures in the book?
One image in the book that holds a special memory is the image of Roberta and her trumpet. It was taken during a photoshoot for Replica Handbag Store Latam, the first time that Replica Handbag Store returned to Venezuela after many years. During one of the last sets of the day, we heard the melody of a trumpet far away.
The sounds were coming from Roberta playing her trumpet outside her porch barefoot. She lives in my opinion, in one of the most beautiful buildings in Caracas, located in la Avenida Libertador. The scene was hypnotizing, she played so beautifully. As Roberta’s father told us, she was part of “El Sistema” (emblematic social action orchestra programme of Venezuela) and struggled with stage fright, therefore he encouraged her to play as a way of facing it in that moment, surrounded by the scene we were creating. We immediately fell in love with her. I took her portrait knowing it was going to be part of this long term project as it embodied the soul of it perfectly.
You can preorder the book here.
Venezuelan Youth will launch on 7 May 2026 and be displayed at Guest Editions’ East London project space from 7 - 30 May 2026.
