Micha Bar-Am

Micha Bar-Am (Hebrew: מיכה בר-עם; born 1930) is a German-born Israeli photographer. Micha Bar-Am is one of Israel's most senior photographers. For more than sixty years his photographs have played a central role in the construction of Israel's cultural memory, and have presented the country's image to the entire world. Born in Berlin 1930, Micha Bar-Am arrived with his family in Israel (then Palestine) in 1936, and grew up in Haifa. He worked at the port of Haifa and joined the Palmach Harel Brigade during Israel's War of Independence.

He was a founding member of Malkia kibbutz on the Lebanese border. In the early 1950s, he participated in archeological expeditions in the Galilee and later in the search for scrolls in the Judean Desert, also, at that time, he began to photograph his surroundings and neighbors. In 1957 became a civilian photojournalist for Bamahane magazine, a Hebrew-language weekly magazine published by the Israel Defense Forces. In that capacity he documented Israel's formative years - immigration, war, and events of public interest. He conducted photographic journeys through West Africa and Asia. In 1961 he was chosen to take part of the limited team who documented the Eichmann trail. In 1967 covered the Six Day War and his photographs were published worldwide, following which he was invited to join the international prestigious photographers collective Magnum Photos.

From 1968 to 1992 was the regional photographer for The New York Times. In 1974, he became a founding member of the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. In 1977 was asked by director Marc Scheps to establish the Department of Photography at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the first of its kind in Israel. He headed the department until 1992 and curated many exhibitions of Israeli and international photographers.

In 1985 he was granted Fulbright and Nieman fellowships at Harvard University. In 2000 he received the Israel Prize for Visual Arts.

Bar-Am has had numerous exhibitions in Israel and around the world. His photographs have been published in many books and countless articles about his work have been published worldwide. He is an honorary citizen of Ramat Gan and Los Angeles.

He is married to Orna, an artist. Their sons are Ahuvia (a classical philologist), Barak (an artist), and Nimrod (a philosopher). He lives in Ramat Gan.