Rania Matar

 

When Working Assumptions contacted me to photograph Saquawana, I knew it was right up my alley. Most of my work has been about my role as a mother, and Saquawana was a caregiver for her mother and her sister, and she was very pregnant. She was caring for three.

I followed her around for two or three hours, and I took a lot of photographs. At some point she stopped being self-conscious. It became natural. In a good shoot, there’s a trust that gets established, and it shows in the photos.

 

Rania is a Lebanese-born American photographer based in Boston, MA.

 
 
 
Saquawana, Caregiver, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012

Saquawana, Caregiver, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012

 
Saquawana, Caregiver, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012

Saquawana, Caregiver, from Showing: Pregnancy in the Workplace, 2012


Mariam, Bourj Al Shamali Palestinian Refugee Camp, Tyre Lebanon, 2009

Mariam, Bourj Al Shamali Palestinian Refugee Camp, Tyre Lebanon, 2009

I started in photography by taking pictures of my own kids. Eventually, when I started taking pictures in Lebanon, I realized that I was drawn to photographing women and children. I remember someone once asking me, “where are the men in your photos?”

“Oops!” I replied, “where are they?” A focus on femininity became consistent in my work moving forward.

My series Girl and her Room was based on my older daughter; it was about teenaged girls and their bedrooms. For that project, I was really focused on capturing a woman in her own space, in her environment.

 
 
Maryam 9, Beirut Lebanon, 2011

Maryam 9, Beirut Lebanon, 2011

 
 
Becca P, Brookline Massachusetts, 2009

Becca P, Brookline Massachusetts, 2009

 
Christilla, Rabieh Lebanon, 2010

Christilla, Rabieh Lebanon, 2010

 
Raissa, Medford Massachusetts, 2009

Raissa, Medford Massachusetts, 2009

 
Clara, 8, Beirut, Lebanon, 2012

Clara, 8, Beirut, Lebanon, 2012

 
 
Yasmine 12, Beirut Lebanon, 2012

Yasmine 12, Beirut Lebanon, 2012

 
 
Dania 9, Bourj El Barajneh Refugee Camp, Beirut Lebanon, 2011

Dania 9, Bourj El Barajneh Refugee Camp, Beirut Lebanon, 2011

 

When that project was finished, I started photographing younger girls for my series that I called L'Enfant-Femme. That was based on my younger daughter, who was—at the time—prepubescent. Her body was changing, and her whole attitude was changing at the same time. I became interested in documenting that process.

Eventually, when my older daughter left for college, I started a project on mothers and daughters. As she was leaving, I realized that my role as a mother was changing, and that I was getting older. It was a way of examining the aging process. When you put a mother and a daughter side by side, it’s almost like you’re looking at the same woman a few years apart.

Motherhood affects your whole life. You have to find a new balance when you have children. It becomes a juggling act. I was an architect before I had my children. And I worked long hours. But when I had my kids, I started working from home, and before I knew it, I had become a photographer. On some level, motherhood changes you. It necessitates a change.