I was born in 1988 in Caracas, Venezuela. In 2009, I moved for five years to Toulouse, France, where I studied Political Sciences (at Institut d’Etudes Politiques) and found my passion for photography (ETPA, Ecole de photographie). In 2014, I moved to Hamburg, Germany, and started to work as a visual storyteller. I also worked as a staff photographer for the SZENE Magazine and did freelance work for some outlets.
Between 2016 and 2017, I developed my most challenging work: “The Meaning Of Life”. It is the intimate story of my husband’s fight against testicular cancer. Today, we use this project to raise awareness about this disease. Each year, the exhibition of the photography series raises funds for male cancer research. In 2018 and 2019, we organized an exhibition in Madrid and Bilbao simultaneously for the Movember Foundation. In 2020, we partnered up with Ralph Lauren, participated in their Pink Pony campaign for cancer awareness and raised funds with their support for the Asociación Española Contra El Cáncer.
My roots called me back to Venezuela in 2017 where I developed “Días eternos”, an in-depth work on the condition of women in pretrial detention and prisons in the country. This work was consecutively awarded the first place of the POY Latam in the category “the strength of women”, then the Lucas Dolega Award and eventually the LUMIX photo Award in 2020. It was also finalist for the IWPA. “Días eternos” was made possible by the support of Women Photograph (2018) and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting Travel Grant (2018).
My work has been published in international outlets like the New York Times, LFI, 6 Mois Magazine, El País, El Pais Semanal, Wordt Vervold, the Washington Post, DUMMY Magazine… It has been exhibited at the Manifesto Festival in Toulouse (2019), the Helsinki Photo Festival (2020), Photoville in New-York (2020). In April 2018, I was invited to participate in a conference in Defense of Human Rights (FIU, Miami). In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, I also give classes to high school children.
Currently based in Bilbao, Spain, and still spending long periods of time in Venezuela every year, I am a Women Photograph member, an Ayun Fotografas member and have been a National Geographic Explorer since 2020.
I am a fighter for women’s rights and my weapon is slow visual storytelling.
I make sure my work is conducted with respect towards the protagonists of the stories and honesty about what I am documenting.
The images I give life to express my own personal language, signature and unique creativity.
Before going to the field, I spend time doing research on the project, understanding the context of the story and preparing a shot-list.
My work focuses on increasing awareness. Its intention is to make the audience reflect, think and ultimately empathize with my protagonists.
1.8 billion images are produced every day. We live in the era of the “democratization of the image”. Images are not the creation of magicians, artists or niche professionals any more.
The fundamental difference between a photographer and a visual storyteller lies in the reason why they create images and tell stories – also called life purpose.
To us visual storytellers, photography is a vehicle to satisfy our curiosity and enable us to put our audience in the skin of those whose essence we capture, reveal and magnify.
In my field work of visual storyteller, I witness hopelessness in the eyes of my protagonists, who are usually in underprivileged and vulnerable situations. Through the creation of powerful stories, I advocate for minorities and give visibility to injustice.
What I ultimately want to achieve with my work is to raise awareness about social issues. I dedicate my life to trigger change and improve the human condition.
This is my daily mission.
Conference on defending Human Rights in Venezuela, Miami 2019
Leica Blog
El Universal
Radio Interview 5.6 Radio
Presentation of Dias Eternos El Salvador with Crisis Group
Interview for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award about my work and me
Interview about Sinfonia Desordenada with Leica Spain
Presentation Dias Eternos with Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Ralph Lauren ‘Don’t Forget About Love’ in association with The Conduit Episode 2: Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen and Philipp Quante
© 2023 Ana Maria Arevalo Gosen, all rights reserved | contact | terms and conditions | privacy policy | made by Incubator Studio