Rania Matar (born 1964) is a Lebanese/Palestinian/American documentary, portrait and fine art photographer. She photographs the daily lives of girls and women in the Middle East and in the United States, including Syrian refugees.

Early life

Matar was born and raised in Lebanon and moved to the U.S. in 1984. Originally trained as an architect at the

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

and at Cornell University, she later studied photography at the New England School of Photography and the Maine Photographic Workshops. Since 2009 she has taught photographic workshops for teenage girls in Lebanon’s refugee camps. She now teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and exhibits her work worldwide.

Career

Matar has made several series of photographs, including ''SHE'', ''L'Enfant Femme'', ''Unspoken Conversations'', ''Women Coming of Age'', ''A Girl and Her Room'', ''Invisible Children'', and ''Ordinary Lives''. Her portraits explore gender studies and often consider varying national identities. ''L'Enfant Femme'' depicts preteen girls living in the United States and the Middle East, and focuses on documenting the age between childhood and maturity. Mothers and daughters are photographed together and present a universal nature of womanhood in the series ''Unspoken Conversations''. Matar began her series ''Invisible Children'' after a visit to Beirut in 2014. She noticed how many Syrian refugee children were on the streets begging for work and money. This series documents the individuality of each child. In 2017, Matar's work was included in the Biennale of the Contemporary Arab World held in Paris at the Arab World Institute.

Publications

Installation Photo Carroll and Sons Gallery

*''Ordinary Lives'' (2009). With an essay by Anthony Shadid. Selected as best photo book of 2009 by ''Photo-Eye Magazine''. *''A Girl and Her Room'' (2012). With essays by Anne Wilkes Tucker and

Susan Minot Susan Minot (born December 7, 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, screenwriter and painter. Early life Minot was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Her father, ...

. Selected as best photo book of 2012 by ''PDN'', ''Photo-Eye'', '' British Journal of Photography'', ''Feature Shoot'' and ''L'Oeil de la Photographie''. *''L'Enfant-Femme'' (2016). With an introduction by Queen Noor of Jordan, and essays by Lois Lowry and Kristen Gresh. Selected as best photo book of 2016 by '' PDN Magazine'' and ''Foto Infinitum'', and was a Staff Pick by '' The Christian Science Monitor''. *''SHE'' (2021). Published by Radius Books with essays by Orin Zahra and Mark Alice Durant.

Awards

*2018:

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, Photography,

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

*2021: Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship *2022: Leica Women Foto Project Award Winner

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Matar, Rania 1964 births Living people American photographers Lebanese art Lebanese photographers Lebanese women photographers American women photographers Cornell University alumni Massachusetts College of Art and Design faculty 21st-century American women