"If you're too close to events, you lose perspective. It is not easy to be fair with the facts and keep your own convictions out of the picture. It is almost impossible to be both a participant in the events and their observer, witness, interpreter"

- Micha Bar Am

b. 1930

Israeli

Based in Ramt Gan, Israel

Correspondent

Available for commissions
& assignments

Micha Bar-Am has been a Magnum Correspondent since 1968. He was born in Berlin in 1930 and moved with his family to Israel, then Palestine, in 1936.

Growing up in Haifa, Bar-Am lived on a kibbutz and began to document kibbutz life with borrowed cameras. Active in the pre-state underground, Bar-Am was drafted in 1948 when the Jewish-Arab conflict turned into all-out war. After his military service, he had several jobs before he began to photograph seriously, covering the 1956 Sinai War.

After the publication of his first book, Across Sinai, Bar-Am was asked to join the editorial staff of the Israeli Army magazine Bamachane, where he worked as a photographer and writer for the next eight years. In 1959 and 1960 he was awarded the Robert Capa Award. He began freelancing in 1966 and covered the Six-Day War in 1967.

In the mid-1960s, Bar-Am curated several exhibits and books with Cornell Capa, including Israel: The Reality. He assisted Capa with the establishment of the International Center for Photography in 1974 and became an active curator. From 1977 to 1993, he was the curator of photography at the Tel Aviv Museum. His reportages on Israel have been published in a large number of magazines and books.

Read More

Selected works

Conflict

Israel During The Six-Day War

Micha Bar Am

Micha Bar-Am's remarkable documentation of the 1967 Six-Day War

Open story
Stay in touch
Monthly updates on the latest assignments, photographer projects and collaborations with brands.
Know when our quarterly 7-day square print sale is coming.
Learn about online and offline exhibitions, photography fairs, gallery events, plus fine print news and activities, on a monthly basis.
Get fortnightly tips and advice articles, find out about the latest workshops, free online events and on-demand courses.
Be the first to know about recent Magnum Shop drops. From new books and limited editions, to special offers, you can find it all on the weekly Magnum Shop newsletter.
Stay up to date every Thursday with Magnum photographers’ activities, new work, stories published on the Magnum website, and the latest offerings from our shop.