A country of chaos

In 2009, Ana María Arévalo Gosen migrated to France after surviving three violent attacks in her home country of Venezuela. The traumatic experiences left her fearful of attending university and frustrated by the general neglect and lack of governmental care and responsibility to create a secure and stable environment for its citizens.

“When I left Venezuela, I was very angry at my country, because of what happened and because I was forced to leave my home, the most precious thing we have.”

During her years abroad, she discovered photojournalism and documentary photography, which shaped her artistic language. Returning eight years later, she found a frail and fractured country: inflation was outrageously high, infrastructure broken, basic supplies scarce, and widespread suffering had become the new norm.

Through a friend working with the rights of people in detention centres, she learned how these crises extended into the treatment of detainees: women were held for months without trial, legal assistance, or medical care, some pregnant and at risk of infection. This led Arévalo Gosen to accompany her friend to a detention centre to witness the horrific conditions first hand.

“When I witnessed these conditions, it made me realise the scale of the crisis my country is in and how deeply underreported the story was. It visualises some of the consequences of the deep crisis in my country, and that made me decide to do something about it.”

A method of trust and immersion

Arévalo Gosen’s method relies on building trust and meaningful relationships with the women she photographs, demanding a deep personal investment and long-term engagement.

“I work first with people who can connect me to the communities, and then, when I am in the field, I immerse myself completely. I am inside the community as much as I can, photographing and thinking about giving back. It’s very important to gain the trust of the communities in a way that is ethical. The relations have to be as equal as possible. Every story and every project I do is personal. It takes something personal from me. I put a lot of effort into gaining the respect of the people I’m working with. From being curious, to asking the proper questions, to empathising, understanding, and lastly translating that understanding onto the viewer.”

Arévalo Gosen’s horizontal approach is key to creating a strong visual narrative. Through ethical collaboration, she creates images that encapsulate a special tenderness and intimacy with women in harsh environments that are rarely documented or shared with a wider audience. This method of care, respect, and authenticity is deeply embedded in each of her photographs.

Images of urgency – and agency

Días Eternos challenges how we perceive imprisoned women and their unbearable conditions in Latin America. The reflex to discard them as criminals, to think of them as distant or as someone else’s problem, becomes impossible when confronted with this work. Rather than offering answers, the images pass agency on to us, the viewers. They carry built-in calls to action, urging us to respond to the injustices these incarcerated women are faced with.

“How are governments treating them? Where are their families? Do they have children? Who do they miss? Can they reinsert into society easily, or do they carry the stigma of incarceration forever? All of these questions matter.”

For the artist, the treatment of incarcerated populations is important to discuss as it reflects a society’s moral values and capabilities: how governments uphold justice, humanity, and equality; how local communities respond to vulnerability and care; and how easily communities can be dismissed if basic human rights are not actively safeguarded. Issues that, in the light of the most recent developments in Venezuela, are more urgent than ever.

Dignity in colour

“My work is not about imagined dystopias. It is about the pitch-black nightmares women already live in Latin America. It is the most horrible moment of these women’s lives. And I think you can feel it in the pictures. But in order for you to see it and to understand it, the picture also has to be beautiful.”

Through careful aesthetic choices, composition, and the use of an appetising colour palette, Arévalo Gosen restores dignity and respect to the women she photographs. Splashes of pink, blue, and yellow function as injections of humanity, speaking to the hopes and dreams of these women and reminding us that they are not merely criminals. They are human beings – mothers, sisters, and lovers – survivors of poverty, racism, and systemic neglect. These women live in countries with no reliable systems of care or a functioning system of justice – a scenario unheard of in our part of the Western hemisphere.

Arévalo Gosen’s mix of strong narrative and distinct aesthetic creates images that are impossible to look away from. They call on us to face difficult truths, to care for the most vulnerable in our societies, and to never turn our backs on basic human rights.