Henry Wessel, Austin Leong, Adrian Martinez, Soft Eyes, 2024

Soft Eyes interweaves photographs by legendary Henry Wessel (1942-2018) with those of two young California photographers, Austin Leong and Adrian Martinez. The sequence turns into a dialogue of soft gray tones, the authors’ sharp and sensitive gaze captures scenes of everyday life in all their ephemeral beauty. Leong and Martinez follow in Wessel’s footsteps by tracing the sunny California streets in pursuit of those simple yet extraordinary moments of ordinary perfection.

“Soft eyes is a physical sensation. You are not looking for something. You are open, receptive. At some point you are in front of something that you cannot ignore.”

– Henry Wessel