Thanks go out to Gabel, who stood in front of my camera with trust and openness and gave me the freedom to capture his many different facets.
The portraits do not show different people, but moments of one person—intense, thoughtful, vulnerable, strong. In classic black and white, reduced to the essentials: light, shadow, and expression. Each image tells its own little story, and yet they belong inseparably together.
This work reminds me why I take photographs: sometimes revealed as if by a flash of lightning, sometimes slowly and laboriously carved out with a chisel, those rare moments of connection when something true becomes visible.