La Sucursal

La Sucursal. A Critical and Affectionate Reappraisal of the Representation of Violence (2022–ongoing) emerges from the critical and aesthetic resignification of my own archive. Between 2007 and 2009, I produced a long-term documentary project in Caracas, where I photographed urban violence through the conventions of photojournalism. Titled La Sucursal del Cielo (The Branch Office of Heaven), the work received significant recognition within the field of documentary photography.

Fifteen years later, following my evolution as a photographer, I returned to this material to critically reassess my role as a photojournalist, the assumptions of objectivity on which photojournalism is built, and its responsibility in reproducing hegemonic imaginaries of violence in Latin America.

In contrast to closed narratives and visual clichés, this re-reading of the archive generates new images and narratives that propose a more open relationship between the viewer and the reality being represented. The project seeks to reconstruct the story through a series of autonomous yet subtly interconnected narratives.

Each narrative unfolds through a distinct strategy. The out-of-frame and out-of-time challenge linear storytelling and the notion of the decisive moment; the identification of gazes directed at the camera makes the photographer’s presence visible; and the combination of original black-and-white photographs with new colour images constructs narratives that move beyond the reductive categories of victim and perpetrator.

The project is currently being developed as both an exhibition and a photobook.