Contributing Photographer
Ziyah Gafic (1980.) was born in Sarajevo and grew up during the siege of the city. He briefly became a refugee before returning home, crawling through a tunnel under Sarajevo airport.
Ziyah is Director of The VII Foundation, Sarajevo and an award-winning photojournalist, author, TED speaker and contributor to National Geographic magazine.
Over the past twenty-six years, Gafic has reported extensively across the Middle East, the Caucasus, Africa, the Balkans, the Arabian Peninsula, and Asia, with a sustained focus on societies trapped in perpetual violence and on Muslim communities worldwide.
His work has received some of the most coveted prizes in photography from World Press Photo, Visa pour l’image, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Prince Claus Fund, Hasselblad, National Geographic Society and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Ziyah’s reportages were published as cover stories of The Telegraph Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, GEO, National Geographic, La Repubblica, Le Monde, Liberation, El Mundo to name a few.
His signature body of work, Quest for Identity, is as rigorous as it is profound: a meticulous archive of personal objects recovered from mass graves in Bosnia and Herzegovina — images that function simultaneously as evidence, as memory, and as a quiet act of restitution to lives erased by atrocity. He authored several other books: Muslims of New York, Short Stories from Troubled Societies, and Heartland. Ziyah edited, co-authored or produced books for the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Sarajevo Haggadah and Between Two Empires as well as seminal body of work of war photographs Bosnia 1992 – 1995 and the most recent monograph for the City of Sarajevo.
Alongside his field work, Gafic has helped shape the next generation of storytellers through The VII Foundation ecosystem, working on training platforms and regional programs that widen access to world-class visual journalism education.
In 2026 he received a knighthood from the Republic of France for his contribution to Arts & Literature.
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Ziyah Gafić (1980.) rođen je u Sarajevu, gdje je odrastao tokom opsade grada. Kratko vrijeme bio je izbjeglica prije nego što se vratio kući prolazeći kroz tunel ispod sarajevskog aerodroma.
Ziyah je direktor The VII Foundation Sarajevo, nagrađivani fotoreporter, autor i TED govornik, te saradnik magazina National Geographic.
Tokom više od dvadeset šest godina rada izvještavao je širom svijeta — s Bliskog istoka, Kavkaza, Afrike, Balkana, Arapskog poluostrva i Azije — s kontinuiranim fokusom na društva obilježena dugotrajnim nasiljem i na muslimanske zajednice širom svijeta.
Njegov rad nagrađen je nekim od najprestižnijih priznanja u oblasti fotografije, uključujući World Press Photo, Visa pour l’image, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Prince Claus Fund, Hasselblad, National Geographic Society i Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Njegove reportaže objavljivane su kao naslovne priče u publikacijama poput The Telegraph Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, GEO, National Geographic, La Repubblica, Le Monde, Libération i El Mundo.
Njegov prepoznatljiv opus Quest for Identity predstavlja jednako temeljito koliko i snažno istraživanje — pažljivo građen arhiv ličnih predmeta pronađenih u masovnim grobnicama u Bosni i Hercegovini, koji istovremeno djeluju kao dokaz, sjećanje i tihi čin vraćanja dostojanstva životima uništenim zločinom.
Autor je i više knjiga, među kojima su Muslims of New York, Short Stories from Troubled Societies i Heartland. Također je uredio, bio koautor ili producent publikacija za Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine, uključujući Sarajevsku Hagadu i Between Two Empires, kao i značajnu zbirku ratne fotografije Bosnia 1992–1995, te najnoviju monografiju posvećenu Gradu Sarajevu.
Uz terenski rad, Gafić aktivno doprinosi razvoju nove generacije autora kroz programe The VII Foundation, radeći na edukacijskim platformama i regionalnim inicijativama koje šire pristup vrhunskom obrazovanju u oblasti vizuelnog novinarstva.
