In some ways, Yazan Hasan is a jack of many trades who is learning to master quite a few of them. But you could say what he is really mastering is the art of weaving complicated conservation, science and social justice issues into compelling visual stories. Hasan is a senior dual major in Environmental Science and Technology (ENST) and Geospatial Data Science. But when he’s not in class or studying, he is a freelance photo artist and video producer. That’s how he pays his bills, often shooting wedding videos, still portraits, and selling his artistic photographs in galleries.
In high school, he thought he might major in photography, but his school’s robust environmental science curriculum captured his attention, and he focused his cameras in that direction. Eventually, he came to see photography and video work less as a primary pursuit and more as a tool for telling stories that meant something to him. “I think it's a really beautiful thing to use that visual storytelling to help people connect with research or ideas that are harder to understand,” Hasan explained.
The documentary he produced on environmental justice in Curtis Bay, Baltimore where pollution affects the most socio-economically disadvantaged communities won honorable mention in an EPA competition, and his success at mixing art and science has continued to grow.
To capture his subjects in a more compelling way, Hasan became a drone pilot, opening up new opportunities for storytelling.
“From a science perspective, you can see things and illustrate ideas so much more elegantly with a drone than you can from the ground,” Hasan says, referring to images he captured of a forest being attacked by a small beetle called an Emerald Ash Borer just a few miles from the Nation’s Capital.
“From the ground, you can’t really see how much the tree canopy is decimated. But if you use a drone then you can see all the dead trees standing out among the surrounding forest, and it becomes really stark all of a sudden.”
That is one of the images featured in a collaborative show with two UMD faculty members last year. It was his second feature on ENST faculty work. Prior to that, he produced a documentary on saltwater intrusion for Maryland Sea Grant that included research by Associate Professor Kate Tully.
“I’m a native Marylander, and the reality is, it’s happening right here in our backyard,” he said. “People talk about climate change, economic decline and climate refugees as if it’s going to happen in the future, but there are already ghost towns on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where farmers who've been there for generations can’t grow their crops anymore, and they have no reason to stay.”
Hasan’s passionate connection to the landscape and the environment are critical to his evolution as a visual storyteller, in part because they are rooted in his upbringing as the son of Palestinian immigrants. That heritage was on display in Hasan’s first photography show as a featured artist in December 2022.
Hosted by a gallery near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., the photos in Hasan’s show focused on his cousins climbing on and gathering under the olive trees near their homes in Palestine.
“There are ancient olive trees all across every village, in every city, that have been there for thousands of years,” Hasan said. “I think it’s extremely moving how a tree that was planted by my ancestors is still providing for my community to this day, directly in the form of sustenance. People sell them, make olive oil, what have you. We’re still being taken care of by our ancestors to this day. I think that’s really beautiful, and I see those olive trees as a strong testament to our connection to the land.”
Hasan captured the photos during one of his annual family visits, and they convey his affinity for the region. He hopes to settle in the Middle East eventually, possibly in Turkey, where he spent two summers becoming fluent in the Turkish language as a State Department sponsored Critical Language Scholar.
His goal is to work on conservation issues in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on environmental science and education. Wherever he lands, and whatever direction he turns his lens, Hasan is sure to bring a rich capacity for clarifying complex issues and making an impact on people through his work.
by Kimbra Cutlip