Micha Bar-Am, Work Prints

Coinciding with Berlin Art Week, a presentation of Micha Bar-Am‘s work will be on display in Table. This will mark the beginning of Bar-Am’s dialogue with his father’s photographic oeuvre.

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Born in Berlin 1930, Micha Bar-Am arrived with his family in Israel (then Palestine) in 1936, growing up in Haifa. As a young adult he worked at Haifa Port and joined the Palmach HarEl Brigade during Israel’s War of Independence.

A founding member of Kibbutz Malkiya 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 beginning at that time to photograph his surroundings and neigh- bours.

In 1957 Bar-Am became a civilian photojournalist for Bamahane magazine. In that ca- pacity 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 in the select team that documented the Eichmann trail.

In 1967, he covered the Six Day War and his photographs were published worldwide, fol- lowing which he was invited to join the prestigious international photographers collective Magnum Photos. From 1968 to 1992 Bar-Am was the regional photographer for the New York Times.

In 1977, Marc Scheps asked him 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 numerous exhibitions of Israeli and international photographers.

Bar-Am has had numerous exhibitions in Israel and around the world. His photographs have been published in countless books and articles on his work have been published world-wide.

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

Married to Orna, an artist. Their sons are Ahuvia (a classic philologist), Barak (an artist), and Nimrod (a philosopher). Bar-Am lives and works in Ramat Gan.

Micha Bar-Am is self-taught photographer, founding member of the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, adviser to The Israel Museum (1974-1977), independent curator, lecturer and an honorary citizen of Ramat Gan and Los Angeles.