What Hilina Abe saw
Look closely at this photograph. Let your eyes stay with it, and ask yourself, "What am I really seeing?"
A man stands against the cool stone wall of Bete Medhanialem, his robe folding in quiet rhythm. In his hands, a prayer book worn smooth by generations, its pages a familiar anchor. He does not perform for our eyes, he reads with gentle focus, untroubled by our presence.
Light filters through a narrow window, illuminating gold thread on his robe, a warm glow against red curtains. Silence seems to echo from the rock-hewn walls, carved patiently from the living stone of Lalibela, Ethiopia. Faith shaped from earth itself.
Here the black gaze asserts itself. Hilina Abe is not an outsider peering in, but a descendant of these traditions, raised in Ethiopia and inspired by her father’s family photographs. Her lens honours the sacred without spectacle. She listens to this space, understanding its rituals as extensions of her own heritage. Stillness is not absence, it is depth, presence, belonging.
Hilina Abe’s self-taught journey began with her father’s black-and-white portraits from the 1960s and ’70s. In her work she explores economic inequality, identity, faith and memory through a lens rooted in personal history and social commitment. An alumna of the Eddie Adams Workshop and a participant in the World Press Photo East Africa Masterclass, Hilina brings nuance and empathy to every frame.
In this image, time deepens rather than passing. What you witness is devotion made visible, not for the camera or the world, but for God. Through her gaze Hilina reframes our view: we are not voyeurs, but witnesses to a moment shaped by centuries of faith and her own lived experience.
This photograph is not only to see but to feel. It reminds us that sacredness can be simple, intimate and profound. What do you see, and what stillness might it awaken in you?
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At theBLKGZE, we don’t just reflect the world, we reshape it. We’re building an archive that centres Black vision and truth. We reclaim the frame. We archive what’s been silenced. We honour the everyday and the extraordinary in Black life.
We’re calling on Black photographers to contribute. Add your voice to the archive. Let's reshape the narrative with a truer picture of who we are and who we’ve always been.
