Featured Photo Gallery: Rania Matar //

05.11.10

In Ordinary Lives, Rania Matar captures moments of happiness and lightness in the midst of the starkest surroundings: crumbling, bleak refugee camps. The contrast makes for some breathtaking, thought-provoking and powerful images, that will no doubt stay with you for a while…

“I think too many people portray the ugliness of war,” she says. “After September 11, I became interested in telling another story about the Middle East and showing another face to it.” In 2002 she went to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and this is where telling human stories through photography became her passion. “I saw beautiful women and children, living in terrible conditions,” she says. “I was humbled by the beautiful moments of humanity one can find in less than ideal conditions and made a decision to portray life, beauty and humanity instead of death and destruction.”

Here, Rania shares images from Ordinary Lives and a work in progress “A Girl and her Room.” What’s your favorite image?

Boy in the Mirror, Jaffa 2009

◄ Back

Next ►