Maen Hammad – Landing

Landing explores the lives of Palestinian skateboarders in the occupied West Bank as they navigate the layered realities of Israeli settler-colonial domination.

Documented between 2015 and 2022, the project weaves together Maen’s personal narrative with the voices of Palestinian skaters, offering an intimate perspective of their daily pursuit of freedom. For these young people, skateboarding is both a springboard for escape and an act of resistance against a reality dominated by violence and oppression.

Set against the backdrop of the ongoing genocide and almost a century of erasure, the project serves as a vital window into the tenacity, creativity, and decolonial struggle of this generation in Palestine.

__________

» GET TO KNOW THE ARTIST «

Maen Hammad is a documentary photographer and writer fascinated by exploring the mundane. Although he grew up in Michigan, USA, his Palestinian roots brought him back home, where he has been documenting the skateboard scene in Ramallah, engaging in a reciprocal relationship with this community.

A Magnum Foundation grantee and recipient of the Arab Documentary Photography Program, Maen holds a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University. His work has been exhibited worldwide and published in TIME, i-D, and The New Yorker.

In addition to his photographic practice, Maen is also a researcher and human rights activist.