Born in Palestine, raised in the American suburbs of Michigan, and currently based in Washington, D.C., photographer Maen Hammad brought his skateboard with him when he moved back to Palestine in 2014. For the past six years, Hammad has been documenting the Palestinian skateboard scene and building a reciprocal relationship with the community that he found there. The resulting series and forthcoming photobook, “Landing,” captures the escape that skateboarding offers to a handful of Palestinian skaters, Hammad included: 

“This purposeful escape is a radical form of resistance to a headspace of violence, situated in the layers of Israeli domination in Palestine. Skating leads us into a parallel world, where we can participate in our surroundings. This participation is an interpretive dance with the built environment; a tool to assemble a community; and most importantly, a centering on the imagination. This project serves as a reminder for this pocket of freedom as we all try to find our landing.”

See more from “Landing” below!