For Los Angeles–based photographer Gem Hale, the highest form of creativity comes from expressing authenticity through art. “I have one job as an artist, and that’s to create from my true self,” he says. “Everything else that comes after is an added bonus.” Growing up in the Texas cities of Houston and Austin, Hale was introduced to photography through his grandmother, an eminent landscape photographer who worked with Gordon Parks. “At an early age, she got me a point and shoot and would take me on road trips just to shoot photos,” he recalls. “Getting older, skateboarding took over my life; it allowed me to be free and run wild making portraits and scenes of everybody around me.” At age nineteen, Hale was shot while protesting in Austin. “After surgery and ongoing court litigations, I moved to Atlanta and worked for two years as a full-time photo assistant to Cam Kirk,” he explains. “It really changed my worldview on how art could be a commodity and a business while still being enjoyable at every step.” Inspired by photographers like Diana Lawson, Tyler Mitchell, Gabriel Moses, Bryan Schutmaat, Wolfgang Tillmans and Tobin Yelland—as well as filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos—Hale takes his role as a documentarian seriously, letting his stylistic touches and camera choices reveal the personality of himself as an artist as well as his subjects. “When I approach an image, there is a vulnerability within myself and my subject that are at play, and I always try and respect that feeling,” he says. “I approach making work as an extension of life, and it’s an honor to capture the essence of someone through my perspective.”