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

The Wanderess by Roman Payne

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Unfortunately, It was Paradise by Mahmoud Darwish

https://www.saintlucybooks.com/

https://ayellowroseproject.com/

https://www.seal-usa.org/

https://www.radiusbooks.org/

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