Diana Matar
2003 FiftyCrows PhotoFund Winner - North America Region

About Diana

Diana Matar received her B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University in 1996 and is presently a Paris-based photographer. Her images have appeared in such publications as The Irish Independent, The New York Times, The Saturday Guardian, Elle (Brazil), Marie Claire (Mexico), Reportage, HQ, and al-Sharq al-Awsat, an Arabic newspaper. Mater has produced essays on an array of global circumstances, including Guatemalan street children, Cuba in transition, families in Mexican prisons, and an on-going project in the United Kingdom on asylum-seekers and political refugees for which she has received multiple grants and awards.

This particular essay, The Veil as Resistance, has many personal resonances for Matar. As a woman with hybrid origins and unique insight into both Western and Middle Eastern cultures, she is invested in the stories of Muslim women today as they pertain to the socio-political complexities of Egypt as well as the United States. Through her images, Matar seeks to broaden and bridge transnational understanding.