Last night I got to sit and participate in a presentation from Rania Matar. Her work is fascinating and her stories inspiring. She has a lot of press and fame so this post won’t get into a thorough biography or summary of her work. Check her out at her website or instagram. I believe last nights interview will also be on IG live but I’m not sure if it will be archived and accessible moving forward.
What struck me the most was her work as a Lebanese-American immigrant woman, a mother of 4 children, and a photographer interested in portraiture to express these experiences. This alchemic combination would carry her to Lebanon and Palestine to contrast the experiences of young women in different cultures. The stand out moment of the talk for me was when she and her family become trapped in Lebanon and spend several months unable to get back to the States, eventually having to escape through Syria!
The part that shocks me… is that she went back. After this traumatic experience she still felt compelled to continue her work in war torn countries… in fact her next evolving project Ordinary Lives was specifically to return to these war zones and photograph the women and inhabitants in shells of buildings. Jarring images of children playing and exercising in environments inescapably brutal and broken in our Western privilege… and still the children play…
I’ve heard it said before that courage is not the absence of fear. Rather it is the will to act in spite of it. Or something of that nature.
Rania Matar is a fascinating study in courage. Whatever her intent, awareness, or motivations… her story brings to light a reflection for me to ask what I would be courageous about. What I would be willing to work towards - be it a narrative or general life work - that would help me transcend the paralyzing fear I deal with on the day to day!
Again, check her out. She’s definitely google-able.
Thank you again to Exposure Photography Festival, Roscza Foundation, and Calgary Arts Development for including me in this project. This was just the first talk and I’m buzzing!
quick shout out to the fellow members. Amazing group of artists. Can’t wait to keep learning more about them as well!