Irene Turner Gonzalez

I do documentary photographic studies of cultures that may soon disappear in my native country, Venezuela. My work as a documentary photographer began some 27 years ago as a photographer of children, with the work "Children in Venezuela", followed by several others on the same subject. While taking pictures of children on small Venezuelan farms, called “conucos”,I soon found that I had begun a study of the conucos themselves and their environment and culture, culminating in the study "Conuqueros" (Peasant Farmers).

I define "Conuqueros" as my first appreciable photographic achievement, but in the meantime I undertook other studies that absorbed me and did not return to the conucos  until I had finished "The Sun Rises in the East", which was of the life of fishermen in the east of Venezuela, specifically the island of Margarita, where the work was chosen for permanent exhibition at the Legislative Assembly in La Asunción.

I took "Conuqueros" out of the country and managed to get showings in the United States in Boston, Massachusetts and Tulsa, Oklahoma ,where the University of Tulsa offered to act as curator and conveyor of the work in various parts of the United States; this seemed like a stroke of luck.

As "The Sun Rises in the East" was ending, I started on two studies of Venezuelan areas where the images tell their own story, “Caseríos y Caminos”, y“Trujillo”. In 2002 I undertook"Los Asuntinos", a Venezuelan tradition of Catholic origins where the palm collectors climb a mountain to pick up special palm leaves that will be blessed and given that the parishioners on Palm Sunday.

In recent years I have spent considerable time in Sucre, where I have completed various studies on rural areas, including "Such Is Paria", "Araya", "Benitez  Municipality," "Carúpano Yesterday and Today", "Guanoco" and "The Carúpano I Saw", and on traditional artizan industries such as  "Cacao" and "Papelon".  In these studies the images hopefully speak for themselves to allow each area to record its place in Venezuelan culture.

I would add that the work of an artistic documentary photographer has given me great personal gratification.