[email protected]
Ziyah Gafic
Photographer and Storyteller
Ziyah Gafić uses his camera to capture the aftermath of war. He has traveled to Pakistan, Iraq and Chechnya to capture beautiful portraits of people carrying on with their lives in the face of destruction; he has photographed the everyday lives of children in Rwanda, a generation born from the widespread use of rape as a weapon during the Rwandan genocide. A moving question runs through his work: After war, how do people manage to keep the fabric of society together?
Gafić's interest in this subject comes from his own biography. Born in Sarajevo, he was a teenager during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Through photography, he parses what happened in his homeland. For his book Quest for Identity, Gafić photographed the watches, keys, shoes, combs and glasses exhumed from mass graves 20 years after the Bosnian War. These objects are cleaned, catalogued and used to help identify the bodies found with them, but afterwards, they become what Gafić calls “orphans of the narrative,” either destroyed or stored away out of sight and out of mind. His quest is to keep them in view as a last testament to the fact that these people existed, preserving them as an easily accessible visual archive that tells the story of what happened—integrating an objective forensic perspective with human compassion.
Related Speakers View all
Phil Hansen
Internationally Recognized Multimedia Artist, Author...
|
|
Sebastião Salgado
Brazilian Social Documentary Photographer & Photojo...
|
|
Kris Krug
Founder of Static Photography
|
|
Aris Venetikidis
Aris Venetikidis is a graphic designer with a passio...
|
|
Lisa Kristine
Internationally Recognized Fine-Art Photographer, Hu...
|
|
Robert Fogarty
Photographer, Founder of Dear World; Co-Founder of E...
|
|
Rankin
Portrait & Fashion Photographer
|
|
David Guttenfelder
Award-Winning Photojournalist & Conservationalist
|
|
Mattias Klum
Natural History Photographer, Keynote Speaker & Sust...
|
|
David Doubilet
National Geographic Photographer & Founding Member o...
|
|
Stuart Firestein
Scientist; Advocate for the Public Understanding of ...
|
|
Giles Duley
CEO of the Legacy of War Foundation, Award-Winning P...
|
|
Frans Lanting
Wildlife Photographer
|
|
Brian Skerry
National Geographic Magazine Photographer, Specializ...
|
|
Beardyman
Musician and Beatboxer; "King of Sound and Ruler of ...
|
|
Louie Schwartzberg
Award-Winning Cinematographer, Director, Photographe...
|
|
Rick Smolan
CEO of Against All Odds Productions, Photographer, A...
|
|
Charlie Hamilton-James
Photographer & Wildlife Conservationalist
|
|
Wade Davis
Anthropologist, Explorer and Photographer; Explorer-...
|
|
Smita Sharma
Award-Winning Photojournalist & Visual Storyteller
|