{"product_id":"fallen-leave","title":"Fallen leave","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor more than twenty years, the \u003cstrong\u003eMekdachi family\u003c\/strong\u003e has travelled the world. Each journey is driven by the same curiosity: discovering new studios in which to record songs, finding inspiring places to photograph and film, and then setting out in search of a \u003cstrong\u003ebasketball hoop\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis search has become a ritual. Not necessarily for the most beautiful court but, more often than not, the simplest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA stretch of concrete. A few painted lines on the ground. A backboard weathered by time. A metal rim suspended in the air.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, these courts have become one of the reasons the family travels. They have allowed them to meet people they would never have encountered otherwise. Some stayed only for a game. Others became friends for life. Thanks to them, each new city felt a little more familiar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThese ordinary places hold something extraordinary. They bring people together.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross the world, basketball courts possess the same quiet power. It welcomes everyone. Age, language, culture, social background or profession suddenly cease to matter. All it takes is a ball for a game to begin, and only a few minutes for strangers to play as if they had known each other forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBasketball becomes a language beyond words.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike music, it allows people to communicate without translation. A pass, a look, a smile, and a shared effort are enough to create an immediate understanding. You improvise, like musicians who do not speak the same language yet somehow play the same melody.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo different forms of expression, but the same experience: strangers creating something unique together before going their separate ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis is the spirit that Lola James Harper calls Hooptime.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe photographs gathered in this book, taken over more than twenty years by \u003cstrong\u003eNoé, Lili and Rami Mekdachi\u003c\/strong\u003e, do more than document basketball courts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey tell the story of places that make encounters possible, revealing their spirit of sharing and connection. These concrete spaces become, all over the world, genuine public squares where humanity expresses itself in its simplest and most beautiful form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey are places where you arrive alone and leave feeling a little less like a stranger.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery hoop is an invitation. An open circle reaching towards the sky. A promise of connection.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor Rami and his son Noé, these courts have also been part of a more intimate story. Since Noé was five years old, the two of them have made a point of seeking out a basketball court in every new city they visit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBasketball became a way of understanding each other differently, without necessarily having to speak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA conversation made of movement, trust, closeness, and time spent together.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book finds its natural continuation in the feature film \u003cstrong\u003eHooptime\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhere the photographs freeze movements in time, the film gives them a voice.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the passes, the smiles, and the games come the conversations. The men and women met by chance on street courts across the world talk about how street basketball has changed their lives, the friendships it has created, the boundaries it has erased, and the remarkable ability of a simple concrete court to connect worlds that might otherwise never have crossed paths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome of these encounters continue far beyond the court, in recording studios in \u003cstrong\u003eParis, Beirut, London, Los Angeles\u003c\/strong\u003e and elsewhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBasketball players who are not musicians become, for the duration of a creative project, musical partners, gradually shaping the film’s soundtrack together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe music emerges from the same impulse as the game itself: listening, trust, spontaneity and the joy of creating together.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LOLA JAMES HARPER","offers":[{"title":"30 x 45 cm","offer_id":59808799064396,"sku":null,"price":190.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"60 x 90 cm","offer_id":59808799097164,"sku":null,"price":390.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"80 x 120 cm","offer_id":59808799129932,"sku":null,"price":850.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0080\/7852\/4495\/files\/Fallen_leaves.jpg?v=1793972225","url":"https:\/\/www.lolajamesharper.com\/fr\/products\/fallen-leave","provider":"LOLA JAMES HARPER","version":"1.0","type":"link"}