About Ziyah Gafić

Ziyah Gafić was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He began his professional photography career after graduating from Sarajevo University with a degree in Comparative Literature, and has traveled extensively since 1999. His photographs tell the story of societies in conflict and transition.

Gafić likes to think of photography as a means of producing empathy, and that very personal and emotional view of the medium has always dictated his approach and subject manner. Gafić’s latest project, Quest for Identity, consists of photographs of objects that the victims of the Bosnian War carried with them when they were killed. He also recently completed Troubled Islam, a series of photographs from Muslim countries around the world that have been torn by ethnic conflicts and fraternal warfare.

Gafić’s work has been exhibited widely and his photographs are regularly printed in leading publications like Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and La Republica.