“Given Venezuela’s economic straits, long lines for food and the desire of many to live somewhere free of political strife, you’d think hitting the lottery would be a good thing. But for Alejandro Cegarra, there’s one number nobody wants to hit.

“A friend of mine calls it the crime lottery,” Mr. Cegarra said. “If you go out and manage to get home O.K., then you did not win the crime lottery. The way things are, it can hit you anywhere, anytime in the worst and best neighborhoods.”

That bit of dark humor underscores for Mr. Cegarra, a 25-year-old Caracas-based photographer, the psychic toll taken by years of crime and violence in his homeland. Although rich in petroleum, the nation’s economy has faltered, while its long-running political stalemate — which began during the reign of the socialist President Hugo Chávez — may be entering an era of greater conflict as the opposition took control of Parliament in Sunday’s elections. Unlike those who would train their lenses on demonstrations and street fights, Mr. Cegarra has been exploring the psychic landscape, looking at those who are caught between good guys and bad guys (categories that can be fluid, he found) in order to survive from day to day. In a country where the military has been pressed into patrols usually done by the police, he also questions how the government uses its resources in ways that do anything but increase security.

“There is this mood of having to look over your shoulder and not trusting anyone,” he said. “It gets worse every day. You’re always hearing about someone being kidnapped, robbed or killed. It gets to the point that if too much time passes without hearing from someone, either something happened to them or they left the country.”

The idea for his project started earlier this year when Mr. Cegarra was selected to participate in the Joop Swart Masterclass in Amsterdam and was mulling over several possibilities. The death of a friend led him to pursue a theme that got to the heart of daily life in one of the world’s most violent cities. And rather than take the usual cops-and-robbers approach, he wanted to examine what life looks like against this backdrop of ceaseless fear.”

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/fear-and-loathing-in-venezuela