Silvana Trevale is a 24 year-old photographer from Caracas, Venezuela. She left the country at 17, but she goes back home often to visit her family and make new work. Currently living in the north of England, she is working on a upcoming exhibition at ThePrintSpace in London and also undertaking commercial work for a number of clients. Silvana immortalised the women of her country in her series Nosotras.
How did you get interested in photography and why did you pick photography as a medium and form of expression?
I like to say that I have always been drawn to photography, I have been in the artistic side since a very young age. Visual arts has been a medium that communicated more to me than any other. Therefore, I decided to explore it, in combination with the ongoing curiosity to explore cultures different from my own.
“I aim to create awareness and mainly celebrate the heroes of my country.”
However, in my most recent project Nosotras, I photographed Venezuelan women that are or were indulged in the current situation in my home country. Photography has been the medium for me to indulge the love I have for my country, the frustration towards the situation in Venezuela and the admiration for the heroes of my homeland. It has allowed me to communicate a combination of feelings, ideas and identity through light exposed in a negative.
Tell us more about your series Nosotras, who are these women?
The subjects in these images are Venezuelan women, women that are currently in Venezuela and others that have emigrated to other countries for better opportunities. This is an ongoing problem in my home country, the number of emigrants continue to grow every day. With the series I aim to create awareness and mainly celebrate the heroes of my country.
How did you meet them and what is your link to them? How did you integrate their stories into your images?
Some of the women are family members, other are friends and the rest were women I met during my time in Venezuela. Within each portrait I intended to incorporate about who they are, I believe each viewer will have their own experience with the images but I tried to portray the reality of each women accompanied with the environment they are involved in.
What do they represent to you?
I feel a deep relation with them as I am a Venezuelan woman, I left my country at a very young age to pursue my career. I have experienced what many Venezuelans have felt, to leave my family, start over in a different country and having to adapt to a different culture. Additionally, the majority of my family is still living in my home city Caracas, therefore I am aware of some of the many problems my family members, friends and Venezuelan citizens have to experience everyday.
Enjoy Silvana’s work on her website.
