CHAMBA: Venezuelan Resistance By way of a Photographic Lens

Caracas, January 17, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan photographer Rome Arrieche noticed an exhibit of his photographic challenge “CHAMBA: Portraits of the Venezuelan People” inaugurated in New York City on January 10.

Arrieche, who joined the occasion through convention name, instructed Venezuelanalysis that the challenge was borne out of a need to “make the Venezuelan working class visible.”

“There is a preconceived idea of Venezuela centered on whiteness and beauty queens, but we are a very diverse country,” he mentioned. “The poor and the working class have historically been made invisible in the mainstream media.”

Arrieche defined that the photographic challenge has three foremost fronts: a ebook, the general public exhibition at The People’s Forum in New York, and the printing of chosen works and merchandise. 

According to Arrieche, the title “chamba,” a Venezuelan slang phrase for work, or labor, was chosen to pay tribute to the Venezuelan individuals who have resisted and arranged beneath US financial sanctions. The pictures have been taken in numerous areas of Venezuela, a few of them as a part of the “Communal Resistance Against the Imperialist Blockade” journal collection by the Venezuelan Anti-Blockade Observatory.

“I have always made clear that I dedicate the pictures I take to the working people. It’s an homage to the working class,” Arrieche went on so as to add. “I go out to photograph my people, the people who refuse to surrender.”

Arrieche additional mentioned that he sees himself as a part of the fact that he paperwork, and that this sort of perspective is difficult to search out in Venezuela. “Photography is my form of activism, of fighting against capital, against oppression, against imperialism.”

The New York City exhibit inauguration, which featured Venezuela’s UN Ambassador Samuel Moncada, got here days after the US bombed Venezuela and kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

Arrieche argued that the exhibit and his work are “more relevant than ever” to counter mainstream narratives demonizing Venezuela. 

“We have seen a fascist discourse stigmatizing Venezuelans as criminals or drug traffickers, especially in the US,” he affirmed. “In this key moment in history, it is important to show the Venezuelan people for what they truly are: humble, hard-working and resilient.”

CHAMBA: Portraits of the Venezuelan People will stay open to the general public till February 13 at The People’s Forum in NYC (320 W thirty seventh St). Rome Arrieche might be adopted on Instagram.