A Girl and her Room (work in progress) by Rania Matar (February 9, 2010) 
(13 votes, average: 4.15 out of 5)
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Categories / Human Interest / Portraiture / / Click here to open comments section, click again when done to close / 7 Comments
Curator Statement by Elie Domit
It is perhaps the most difficult time in anyone's life - probably the worst - to be a teenager. Rania Matar takes us into to the private domain of the teenager Emporium, the bedroom. It is the voyeuristic thrill of seeing another person’s most intimate space. Rania Matar focusses on contemporary life as it is lived in these private spaces, therewith conveying an underlying psychological dynamic. In order to grant the viewer access to this dynamic, Matar works carefully, but leaves ample room within her creative process to respond to her subject's interest. She seems to know the teens, not only to seek their permission, but also to allow them to reveal themselves comfortably, thus with a significant degree of honesty. She concentrates on a group of people defined, and sometimes vilified by virtue of their age and their marginal status within “mature” society. She explores the fact that teenagers represent not only the transition between childhood and adulthood, but also the lifelong, ongoing transition between who we are internally and who we are seen or assumed to be externally. The rooms of these teenagers contain all of their possessions, and yet these are the last moments they will be living in their parents' homes perhaps. The past is cramped together on the same shelf as the future. In most of the photos, the teenager looks straight ahead at the camera, and appears comfortable, assured. In these images you can remember your past, you can see the present, and can wonder about the future.
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As a mother of a teenage daughter I have been watching with awe her passage from girlhood into adulthood, with all the complications that it entails.
As I am observing her and her girlfriends, I became fascinated with the transformation taking place, with the adult personality shaping up and with an insecurity and a self-consciousness that are now replacing the carefree world those girls had live in so far.
I started photographing them in group situations, and quickly realized that they were so aware of each other’s presence, and that their being in a group affected very much whom they were portraying to the world.
I also realized that under an air of self-assurance, those young women were often very fragile, self-conscious and confused. While their bodies were developing fast into women’s bodies, they were still young girls who suddenly thought they had to behave like adults.
From there, emerged the idea of photographing each girl alone.
I originally let the girls choose the place of their choice and was slowly welcomed into their own private space: their bedrooms, an area that is theirs, that they can fully control, decorate, trash and be themselves in, within an outside world that is often intimidating.
I was fascinated to discover a person on the cusp on becoming an adult, but desperately holding on to the child she just barely left behind, a person on the edge between two worlds. Posters of rock stars were often displayed above a bed still covered with stuffed animals; mirrors were always an important part of the room, a reflection of the girls’ image to the outside world.
Rania Matar (1964) lives and works in Boston, USA.
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Posted in category 652
Lovely! :-) That bitter-sweet twilight zone of soaring emotions…
Rania, Great to see it all up! Want to know these people!
Stephan
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by blogrolls: Being On The Edge Between Two Worlds http://bit.ly/9RDksX...
Great work, I love it.
This is fantastic-Thank you!
Bravo Rania
we all love your work!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Marjolein M, Marina. Marina said: @Visuels @CasperH Ter inspiratie? RT @mmarjolein: Girlz & their rooms. Wonderful photoseries. http://ow.ly/1HNT8 #photography #tip [...]