Erik Hadife (b. 1998) is a Lebanese street photographer and filmmaker whose work explores the quiet strangeness of urban life at night. After studying at LSE and MIT, and working in strategy consulting in New York, he left the corporate world to focus fully on his practice. Hadife’s latest work responds to cities that move faster than our ability to notice them. In public spaces shaped by speed, his images slow the pace, drawing attention to fleeting interactions and unguarded moments caught in artificial light. His work has been exhibited internationally, including in New York, Venice, Athens, and Beirut.
Statement
Erik Hadife photographs cities at night, drawn to the quiet moments where something subtle shifts – where the ordinary starts to feel slightly off, and a glance or gesture reveals something beneath the surface. He works instinctively, following artificial light as it cuts through the dark, isolating people and briefly pulling them into focus before they disappear again. His work lingers on a tension at the heart of urban life: being surrounded, yet alone. These images hold on to fleeting encounters – where people cross paths without really meeting – and sit in that strange space between who we are and the environments we’ve built around us.
Awarded Photographer of the Week - Week 14, 2026
