Rania Matar

Ordinary Lives

July 5, 2007 - July 28, 2007

Rania Matar’s photographic project on Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon which started 4 years ago offers a personal account of an international crisis as the region continues to be in turmoil. There are an estimated 360,000 Palestinian refugees who live in deplorable conditions in twelve refugee camps scattered around Lebanon and whose temporary status of refugees for over 50 years is becoming permanent as third and fourth generations are being born and raised. Some camps are in the outskirts of major cities while others are more isolated and only accessible through one entrance controlled by the Lebanese Army. In either case the camps are not integrated in Lebanese social or economic life.

Matar writes, “These photographs intend to portray the humanity of this refugee population while focusing on the women and the kids, to document their lives and show their everyday situations: playing, working, talking; and as such put a human face on a long forgotten people in search of a home.”