Chicanx Latinx Art and Artists: Week 3: Ana María Arévalo Gosen

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Week 3: Ana María Arévalo Gosen

"I am a fighter for women’s rights and chose slow visual storytelling as my weapon."

- Ana María Arévalo Gosen

Who is she?

Ana María Arévalo Gosen is a photographer, singer, and artist from Caracas, Venezuela. She considers herself a visual storyteller and began her journey as such in Germany in the year of 2014.

Vision & Mission:

Ana views photography as a powerful tool for raw storytelling to raise awareness for the sake of improving humanity. Her goal is to produce social change through honest photographs by mixing research with intimate stories and empathetic relationships.

The project that particularly caught my attention from Ana María Arévalo Gosen is a series of photographs called Dias Eternos. Dias Eternos is her first long-term project and it focused on photographing conditions of women in detention centers and prisons in Venezuela. Ana focused on the prison system in Venezuela as a reflection of the gendered violence and crime in the country, particularly looking at the treatment of poor Venezuelan women. She wanted to show how these facilities are unsanitary, overcrowded, and prone to infectious diseases; the women are also malnourished, often receiving no food, water, or medical attention.

Some of the women in these prisons are victims of abuse in their family and/or are coerced to commit a crime by men. And despite that these women are awaiting trial, they are often not separated from convicted criminals and/or men. In addition to this, many are detained for "Law against hate," meaning that they are imprisoned for protesting against their government. For these reasons, Ana's work is imperative as it raises awareness to help women fight for Human Rights in penitentiary institutions in Venezuela.