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Ádám Jelen (1994) started his career as a screenwriter, creating short stories and exploring ways of making them visible. Fashion and portraits seemed the most capable of telling his stories, and this led him to photography. Initially a self-taught photographer, in 2020 he took a course. His work took him to Paris, and then to Barcelona; he currently lives and works in Budapest. Intent on keeping his creative freedom, he tended to work mostly with independent international magazines, while soon finding his personal style, whose salient characteristics—elegance, simplicity of composition, a signature palette—make for a special atmosphere.

The set called My Pictures Speak, Because I Can’t is one of his most personal, most emotional series, in which the photos communicate such sentiments and thoughts he would be hard put to convey with words.

‘As it turned out, I can use photography as a very good weapon against stuttering. I have to talk to people and instruct them every day, and that makes everyday life quite difficult, but it helps and has helped me a lot. It is also one of the main motifs of my creative career now, and I’m dedicating my first large-scale solo project to it.’

Each image in the series tells a story, which allows the viewer to bring their own emotional and intellectual reactions to the act of interpretation. The emotions and stories behind the images explore the fundamental questions of identity, loneliness, love, loss and human existence.

The 20 photos in the PaperLab Gallery prove that photography is more than mere documentation: it is a powerful form of art that can deeply move viewers. With this series, Ádám Jelen shows how photography is one of the most expressive means of conveying stories and emotions. The series is not only a reflection of the photographer’s own inner world, but a universal message as well that speaks to everyone.

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