I Can't Hear the Birds

Over 5 million Venezuelans have left the country. My parents, my brothers and all of my closest friends are a part of it. I saw my home become empty and my memories become blurry, as if looking at my childhood through a foggy window. Silence slowly took over the rooms that once belonged to my loved ones, and I looked for shelter in natural places where I could reconnect with my country. I have been traveling to rural areas looking for the Venezuela of those childhood memories, for the traces of a better time. I found it, in the middle of solitude, struggling to survive the general decay.

I Can’t Hear the Birds is a documentary project that portrays Venezuela as a mental state, and digs into what Venezuelans who stay are feeling. Mixing images of nowadays rusty landscapes, portraits and interviews of those who stay, the emptiness of the spaces from friends who left and memories from their family albums, it aims to build memory of who we were and show migration from the point of view of those who see everything changing from the inside. Either you leave or you stay, your home is no longer there.

Seven consecutive years of economic collapse and political crisis left a devastation only comparable to countries that went through an armed conflict: 94% of the Venezuelan population live below the poverty line, according to an investigation made by 3 independent universities, destroying the middle class and increasing the inequality gap.

With that idea in mind, I will visit locations linked to my childhood memories. I chose Margarita Island for this chapter because they have an evident contrast of the abandonment and the tropical beauty of Venezuela, and they have been considerably hit by migration.

In March 2020, right before the borders closed, I came to Colombia and was locked here until I became a migrant myself. Now I have a deeper understanding of migration after years of living it from the inside. This fund will allow me to go back home and continue the project that has been stuck for over a year.

It is important to keep documenting our crisis impact now, because even though it is no longer on the front pages of the world, the collapse goes on and the pandemic has only deepened everyday struggles for citizens.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Image from the I Can't Hear the Birds photography project
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A man is seen in Lake Maracaibo, which used to be the symbol of Venezuela's prosperity and now suffers from an oil spill that has been taking place for two decades.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Image from the I Can't Hear the Birds photography project
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A hand full of oil at Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. This used to be a rich area where oil workers lived, now an oil spill is seen all over the Lake. Picture taken on January 2018.

© Fabiola Ferrero - A guacamaya under heavy rain in Caracas.
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A guacamaya under heavy rain in Caracas.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Image from the I Can't Hear the Birds photography project
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A covered image from collaborator Elena Cardona's family album. She left to the United States and is currently based in Los Angeles.

© Fabiola Ferrero - An old image of me and my brothers intervened with sand of the same beach where it was taken, Machurucuto, in Venezuela.
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An old image of me and my brothers intervened with sand of the same beach where it was taken, Machurucuto, in Venezuela.

© Fabiola Ferrero - A self portrait inside the beach where I grew up, Machurucuto, now with no visitors. Picture taken in August 2019.
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A self portrait inside the beach where I grew up, Machurucuto, now with no visitors. Picture taken in August 2019.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Two girls play with a scarf at Guajira desert, in the Venezuelan border with Colombia. Taken on February 2017.
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Two girls play with a scarf at Guajira desert, in the Venezuelan border with Colombia. Taken on February 2017.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Image from the I Can't Hear the Birds photography project
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My grandmother's bed, inside our beach house, with wasps on it. When I entered the house, it was so full of wasps I had to sleep outside on a hammock. The house is falling apart.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Old images of my friend Nolan and his family. All of them but his mother have migrated.
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Old images of my friend Nolan and his family. All of them but his mother have migrated.

© Fabiola Ferrero - An image rephotographed out of focus from collaborator Daniel Moreno's family album. He's been based in Colombia since 2018.
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An image rephotographed out of focus from collaborator Daniel Moreno's family album. He's been based in Colombia since 2018.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Image from the I Can't Hear the Birds photography project
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A man shoots in commemoration to his dead relatives during a wayuu celebration at the Guajira desert, in the Venezuelan border with Colombia, on February 2017.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Smoke from a tear gas canister in Caracas.
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Smoke from a tear gas canister in Caracas.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Álbum, Vilena Figueira.
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Álbum, Vilena Figueira.

© Fabiola Ferrero - People gather in Petare, Caracas, during Wholy Week celebrations.
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People gather in Petare, Caracas, during Wholy Week celebrations.

© Fabiola Ferrero - Image from the I Can't Hear the Birds photography project
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Kids play on top on abandoned oil structures. The community lives in the shore of Lake Maracaibo, where an oil spill has been happening for over a decade. Picture taken on September 2019.

© Fabiola Ferrero - A man in the middle of tear gas during a military uprising in Caracas on April 30, 2019.
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A man in the middle of tear gas during a military uprising in Caracas on April 30, 2019.

© Fabiola Ferrero - The beach of La Guaira during my surfing days in 2016.
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The beach of La Guaira during my surfing days in 2016.

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