Hallmark Symposium Rania Matar

Rania Matar when to school for architecture however, upon picking up a camera, her life changed. Through the lens of a camera, she started seeing the world in a different way. As a Lebanese, she returned to her home country and noticed the startling amount of refugees and their sad eyes, mirroring their sad tales. It was then that she first picked up a camera and started photographing the different women and children around the camp. At the end of her stay, she realized she had only captured the women and children and thus began the focus of her project. She took pictures of the ordinary lives of those in refugee camps to show how they were living and adapting even after leaving many things behind in their home country. Through this, she was inspired to take photos in America as a contrast to those in Beirut. Eventually, the evolution of her photographs came as her identity was at stake and she had trouble perceiving where she belonged— the Middle East or the United States. Though eventually, through the help of her camera, she discovered she could be both Lebanese and America, which led to the project where she contrasted mothers and daughters in both settings. As a photographer, she said it was important to always look at the whole frame, every part of the image means something on a larger scale. Wile she was photographing the mothers and daughters, she noticed that the mothers were often the self conscious and would look away or be nervous, whereas when she took shots of the daughters individually, they would turn into the ones who became self conscious. So essentially, the mother and daughters roles’ switched, consequently displaying how the daughters grew in confidence and strength while standing next to their mothers. In another project, Matar chose to photograph teenagers going though the transformation to women in a setting that embodies their identity and makes them feel more comfortable to be in. She took pictures of them in their rooms to display a girl’s individuality in changing times.