Silvana Trevale recounts the story behind her photograph of two Venezuelan brothers on a beach in Playa Medina, taken in 2018. The image, captured on a Mamiya camera during a goodbye trip with friends who were about to leave the country, shows the boys returning from a fishing trip with their father. Trevale, who left Venezuela in the mid-2010s to study at Huddersfield University, describes the surreal setting of a beach with Japanese forest grass and vultures, and how the photograph became the starting point for her decade-long project "Venezuelan Youth."
This photograph matters because it represents Trevale's effort to document the experience of growing up in a country in crisis, balancing harsh realities with moments of beauty and innocence. The project, now published as a book, aims to preserve Venezuelan identity and traditions, such as the Joropo dance, while challenging the dominant photojournalistic narratives of crisis. Trevale's work offers a personal, hopeful perspective on a generation marked by displacement and resilience, serving as a love letter to her homeland.