3 minute read
CAPTURING LIFE THROUGH A LENS
The Pittsburgh region has no shortage of talented and creative people, but Maranie Rae Staab is one of the most extraordinary women I’ve met here.
CAPTURING LIFE
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By Rachel Saul Rearick Through A Lens
You may recall seeing some of her photos along the Allegheny Riverfront; the series Displaced depicted refugees from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. What you may be surprised to learn of Maranie is that she is a self-taught photographer, and has only been behind the lens professionally since 2015. While she grew up always around a camera, it was not the course she planned. What took Maranie to college was a track scholarship, and college led to a corporate life. What brought her to the camera full-time was an accident that almost took away her ability to even walk.
It’s a bit of a turbulent story, working in the corporate world, Maranie found herself returning to Pittsburgh in 2011, to help care for her mother after an onset of encephalitis. Following that was after her own accident, which forced a grave reality to sunk in, life could be taken away in a moment. It’s no wonder that there is a sense of sophistication and acute recognition of humankind in her images, she has walked close to the line herself, and witnessed the fortitude of survival with her mother.
Following those experiences and after her own recovery, Maranie began using her three weeks of vacation per year to backpack and begin her journey as a journalist. “I was inspired and stimulated by travel,” she told me, as she described those early experiences exploring the world from behind a camera lens. The freedom of those experiences is what led her to where she is now. Then she told me,
Each and every one of her photos is telling. Some images amplify the happiness of the human spirit, seen in the smiles of the women of the Congo which she has captured; others sting with the most deplorable and despicable ramifications of humankind, such as her documentation of an airstrike in Mosul.
Maranie explained the consensual relationship that she has developed with people from behind the lens. “It’s important to make someone feel respected. Sometimes people want desperately for their story to be told. And you can tell when people don’t want to have their photo taken. I don’t take photos of people without consent.” She explained that even in times when the consent is not a verbal process because the gravity of a situation is so heavy, eye contact with an individual is telling enough to dictate whether or not to capture an image. I would venture to say there is a seen truth to her connection with those in her images, after even just a few minutes of looking at her images.
Right now, Maranie divides her time between freelance local work and global journalism. “If I could travel and do issue driven work half of the year, I’d be happy. There is no lack for stories out there,” she said. Talking further of her images and why she does the work that she’s doing now, she told me, “I learn more from these experiences than I could ever give. The perspective gained is invaluable.”
Spending 45 minutes over tea with Maranie Staab was the spiritual reawakening that I didn’t realize I needed. If you ever catch yourself taking life for granted, or forgetting that we’re all connected in one way or another, I would invite you to peer through her lens. Her photos are a quick and strong reminder that art is more than a tool for social justice-imagery can be a lifeline. See for yourself at www.maranierae.com or by visiting her Instagram @maranierae
HIGHLAND PARK, 412-665-9000
