Photojournalism in Venezuela: From El Porteñazo to Protests and the Faces of Hunger

Abstract

This research offers a sociocultural study of journalistic photography in Venezuela by reviewing images internationally recognized with the World Press Photo and Pulitzer Prizes. From the analysis and contextualization of journalistic and documentary photographs, the objective is to reflect on the social function and uses of the image in contemporary times. The corpus comprises images by Venezuelan or Venezuela-based photographers awarded the prizes mentioned: two individual and two series of photographs. The oldest is Héctor Rondón’s 1962 picture of El Porteñazo. The second photograph and the first of the series shared the context of the 2017 protests and riots against the government of Nicolás Maduro; their authors are Ronaldo Schemidt and Juan Barreto, respectively. The second series showed the victims of hunger and malnutrition in Venezuela and was published in The New York Times; its author is photojournalist Meridith Kohut. All these photographs have been studied using a matrix of analysis that delves into the conflicts and realities they portray, their intrinsic value as images, and their repercussion and projection. We conclude how the visualization of facts through photography and its international recognition affirms the possibilities of the image to approach reality and show its nuances and contrasts, as well as its denouncing value. The fact that these prizes were awarded long after the recorded events makes it possible to revisit the subjects they document, sometimes forgotten or displaced in the maelstrom of new events.