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“The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
In this day of iPhones, Instagram, and selfie culture, images of people are constantly part of our life in more ways than they have ever been. However, capturing a powerful portrait goes well beyond the quick press of a button.
Acclaimed portrait photographer and teacher, Rania Matar, reveals the key elements that make powerful portraits during this engaging two-presentation webinar. Rania delves into the process of working with people from approaching potential subjects, establishing trust, and developing a relationship. In this all-important process, one learns to pay attention to detail, postures, expressions, and the use of the environment, while working through the process and all the details of creating a great portrait. Rania also discusses the use of framing, natural light, location, background, body language, the significance of the gaze or not, as well as paying close attention to the relationship of the photographer to the subject throughout the entire process.
Rania shares her tools, her process, and reviews the many different aspects of portraiture — close-up portraits, environmental portraits, documentary portraits, collaborative portraits, self-portraits, group portraits, and conceptual portraits. She also discusses editing your work, putting a portfolio together, portfolio reviews, and important resources for photographers.
This two-session online program with Rania offers community, connection, and reveals important new ways of working with people and making intimate and creative portraits.
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Rania Matar was born and raised in Lebanon and moved to the U.S. in 1984. As a Lebanese-born American woman and mother, her cross-cultural experience and personal narrative inform her photography.
Rania’s work has been widely exhibited in museums worldwide including Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Carnegie Museum of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Fotografiska, Institut du Monde Arabe, and more. It is part of the permanent collections of several museums.
A mid-career retrospective of her work was on view at Cleveland Museum of Art, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the American University of Beirut.
In 2023 Rania had two solo museum exhibitions: “SHE” at the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama and “Oceans At My Door” at the Fitchburg Museum of Art in Massachusetts. Her images were also part of the exhibition “Women Defining Women” at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Rania has received several awards including: 2022 Leica Women Foto Award, 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, 2017 Mellon Foundation artist-in-residency grant, 2021 (2011, 2007) Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grants, 2011 Griffin Museum of Photography Legacy Award. She was a finalist for the Oskar Barnack Award 2023, Arnold Newman Prize 2022, Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition with an exhibition at Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery/DC, and Taylor Wessing Prize with an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In 2008 she was a finalist for the Foster Award at the ICA/Boston, with an accompanying solo exhibition.
She has published four books: SHE, 2021; L’Enfant-Femme, 2016; A Girl and Her Room, 2012; Ordinary Lives, 2009.
Website: raniamatar.com
Instagram: @raniamatar
