The Women's Work Issue Women's Work. Pen and Brush. 2019 | Page 36

pen + brush x of note
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ON STYLE AND SUBSTANCE: THE DIGNIFIED GAZE OF MALAGASY WOMEN
by erin haney
Miora Rajaonary takes on the time-honored and
expansive work of photographic seeking. In her
attuned gaze, evidenced by the collaboration and
deep sense of intimacy between the artist and her
multi-generational Malagasy subjects, Rajaonary
arrays the style, substance, power, and beauty in
her portraits of women from Madagascar. In doing
so, she imagines and accumulates a new set of
narratives, first for herself as a Malagasy woman,
and secondly for a larger purpose of representing
women from a part of the world that largely remains
under-the-radar. Rajaonary takes up some aspects
of studio portraiture that resonate in other parts of
Africa while forging new creative spaces previously
undefined and unexpected. Her photographs shore
up the possibilities of pictorial storytelling, in the
very places we have not yet been able to properly see.
MIORA RAJAONARY
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Women’s Work
In her series Lamba (2018), which aptly makes its
debut in Women’s Work , Rajaonary’s subjects are
linked in prideful ambit, their confident gazes in tune
with the medium-format camera and the methodical
photographic process. They are each dressed in a
lamba, the traditional Malagasy garment that serves
as a symbol of the island’s cultural heritage. The
lamba is creatively styled and fashioned as shawls,
wraps, dresses, headwraps, skirts, ornaments,
and accessories in the self-assured hands of these
women. How they choose to wear it signals their
interpretation of the definition of Malagasy identity, a
point of status that is inherently complex.
Depending on who is looking at a given lamba, the
visual transmissions are versatile, multivalent,
and specific. Meanwhile, playing the role of both
photographer and stylist, Rajaonary poses and
pairs the women with the lambahoany—a printed
cotton version of the lamba depicting scenes from
everyday life in Madagascar and featuring a proverb
on the lower border of the design. They serve as a
unifying backdrop that connects the subjects across
the geography of Madagascar, bridging the land of
the living and that of the ancestors, and functioning
as both an aesthetic and important document of
Malagasy culture.
Neither the high-end portrait studio makers in
Madagascar’s capital city of Antananarivo, nor the
photojournalists who must maintain a distance
with their lens, are relevant models for this work.
Rajaonary moves deliberately; it is clear she has
been in conversation with her subjects. In fact, she
knows these women—among them are her family,
her friends, her community. However, in the end,
the project is larger than personal encounters. The
portraits of these women are rooted in the inquiry
and imaginary around Madagascar as a sign—to be
seen and represented.
In Mamie , featuring the artist’s grandmother,
Rajaonary reflects on how the lamba continues to
serve as a powerful tool of agency for Malagasy
women through generations. She says:
The black and white shoulder wrap that
Mamie, my grandmother, is wearing has been
an indispensable part of the feminine attire
for Malagasy women of the central highlands
of the country, especially for women born
before the 1950s, who wear it everyday. Today,
the shoulder wrap still allows women of all
ages from the central highlands to celebrate
their Malagasy identity and assert their
femininity on formal occasions.
Miora Rajaonary, Helène, from the series, Lamba, 2018, archival c-print, 33 x 33 inches. Courtesy of the artist.