I want to remember
how people make.
I keep returning to people who know how to do something with their hands. A potter shaping clay. A farmer gathering a harvest. A woodcarver reading the grain of a piece of timber. Their knowledge does not always live in books. It lives in movement, repetition, memory and years of practice.
Hands began as my documentary project about these people. I wanted to slow down, stay long enough to observe, and photograph not only what they make, but the life and knowledge behind it.
Humantique came later, from a simple and practical question: could the photographs help the stories continue?
I want selected images from these journeys to live beyond a screen as physical photographic editions. When someone chooses one, they are collecting a photograph—but they are also helping finance the travel, time and fieldwork behind the next story.
The craft is the subject.
The photograph is the product.
I do not know every form this project will take yet. I want it to grow slowly and honestly: more places, more practices, more time spent listening. I want it to remain personal, curious and close to the people whose work first made me stop and look.
Menat-Allah Kamaledin
Photographer and storyteller