The Sam Abell Library: Life and Still Life

“His process is built on the virtue of patience. He looks for structure in a scene, starting almost with a still-life. He dwells on the parts and composes meticulously. Then he waits.

Minutes, days, weeks he waits, coming and going for months even, drafting thousands of times in his head or on film the scene unfolding. Finally it comes. He calls that ‘a breath of life,’— a simple gesture, a gust of wind, a shadow, a sense of mystery that once stilled, creates involvement for the viewer, that ineffable quality of Abell’s work that keeps us looking.”