Nermine Hammam is an Egyptian artist who lives and works in Cairo and London.
She was born in Cairo and later moved to England and then the United States in 1985. She received a BFA in film-making from the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. She worked in film with Simon & Goodman and then with Egyptian director Youssef Chahine. She was a production assistant on the 1992 Spike Lee film Malcolm X. Hammam subsequently worked as a graphic designer before moving on to visual arts and photography.
As a female photographer, Hammam said she "entered this traditionally male-dominated space, camera in hand, inverting conventional power relationships to ‘shoot’ the soldiers. Their response to my presence, as a woman, in their midst, has become part of the ‘facts’ documented in these images.”
She is known for the distinct technique with which she reworks photography, addressing the influence of mass media and market stylization. Her layered, digitally manipulated works explore the subjective nature of reality. As the founder and creative director of Equinox Graphics, Hammam is also known for introducing art into the public space through innovative design and branding.