Venezuelan photographer moves beyond Bucharest’s grumpy layer

Driven out by the insecurity in Caracas, Alejandro Ilukewitsch learns to enjoy change in new places.

Alejandro Ilukewitsch looks at the worrying taglines: “Venezuela is a bomb that could explode anytime”. The country is struggling with food crises, one of the highest crime rates in the world and high inflation. Ilukewitsch is worried, but from a safe distance: his new house in Bucharest.The 35-year old works with an IT company in Romania’s capital and is one of the 1.5 million Venezuelans living abroad. Alejandro is passionate about documentary and street photography. “I'm no superstar”, he said when asked to be interviewed. Days later, we met at a cafe in Bucharest. A dark-skinned, tall man, wearing glasses and a red sweater was waiting while drinking a cafe latte. He had just returned from the Goethe Institute in Bucharest where he’s taking German classes. He started the A1 German course some years ago when he first left Venezuela and moved to Germany. But he failed to finish the class because he found a job in Brazil in the healthcare IT sector. Alejandro went to Germany with a student visa. Insecurity drove him out of Venezuela, he says. Berlin seemed cool, he already had friends there and he was in his late 20s. He just packed a bag with a few things and flew to Europe. His luggage got bigger when he moved from Germany to Brazil, and then there were even more things to carry when he left for a new job in Mexico. He was now accompanied by his wife, a Romanian woman whom he met in Brazil.