With her striking black-and-white portraits, photographer Nelli Palomäki uses the human gaze to establish piercing connections between subject and viewer. Palomäki is known for her images of children who stare intently at the camera, seeming both precocious and strangely omniscient, as in Julia at 5 (2010). Speaking of two girls she once photographed, Palomäki remarked, “I’m amused by their seriousness; at the same time there is something sacred about it.” Her photographic process is one of mutual revelation, exposing the humanity of subject and artist alike.