CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/1/2017

Rania Matar: L'Enfant-Femme

Rania Matar's 2012 photograph of nine-year-old Salma in Beirut, Lebanon, is reproduced from L'Enfant-Femme, the Lebanese-born, Arab-American photographer's recent book of portraits of preteen girls in both countries. "Matar strips away the confines of societal labels from both herself and the girls she photographs," writes Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan. "She exposes the boundaries of American and Arab cultures in order to reconcile them. Her subjects are not simply American; they are not simply Arab; neither are they simply Muslim, Christian, or Jewish. These girls are simply girls – but much more besides. Matar’s photographs are images of girls at the point where they are beginning to become women – a powerful combination of youth, womanhood, and beauty."