J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Rania Matar
Episode #50, Summary
SHE, is environmental portrait photographer, Rania Matar's, most recent cross-cultural exploration of transformation.
Episode Notes
Matar gracefully investigates womanhood, identity, and empowerment - across time and place. Poetic, soulful, and bold portraits capture the agency of becoming, at the threshold of independence. Matar bridges differences in culture, religion, geography, and nationality, offering the connective experience of our shared humanity.
In this conversation, Rania discusses, among other things:
Working organically
Image as a bonus
Being open to collaboration on all levels
Serendipity
Observing beauty
Following curiosity
Giving subjects agency
The physicality of the print
Spending time with the work
The importance of hands in portraiture
Book design details
The impact of grants and awards
Referenced in the episode
Ordinary Lives (2009) by Rania Matar
A Girl and Her Room (2012) by Rania Matar
L’enfant-Femme (2016) by Rania Matar
She Who Tells a Story at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013-2014)
In her Image at Amon Carter Museum of American Art (2018)
https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/live-dangerously/
Women To Watch, National Museum of Women in the Arts
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Unfortunately, It was Paradise by Mahmoud Darwish
https://www.saintlucybooks.com/
https://ayellowroseproject.com/
