Blurring the line between subjects and friends, Kitra Cahana captures a deep and rare level of intimacy with her subjects. As a documentary and fine art photographer, her images explore anthropological, social and spiritual themes through a human perspective.

Her professional career started at age 17, when one of her images covering the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza landed on the front page of The New York Times.

Kitra prioritizes closeness and understanding with her subjects, often times spending years embedding herself in communities and learning the language of her subjects. She has documented the everyday lives of teenagers in high school, lived with a group of nomadic youth traveling across the United States and most recently told the story of her father's stroke and quadriplegic state.

Kitra continues to explore new aspects of photography, while pushing boundaries and questioning rules. Her photographs have appeared in National Geographic magazine and The New York Times and received first prize for the 2010 World Press Photo.

Webby
Year: 2014
Place: Winner
Category: Documentary: Series

NPPA's Best of Photojournalism
Year: 2014
Place: Honorable Mention
Category: Visual Column

Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.

Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about each of the recipients to screen at the awards ceremony and to later remain online. The films serve as an introduction of the recipients to the audience as well as a showcase of their work, highlighting the motivations for honoring them with Infinity Awards.

For this piece, the interview was the challenge. Kitra Cahana was in Israel and we were unable to do an in-person interview. We knew this film, along with the other films for ICP, was going to be driven by the photographer’s narrative. This made the interview process extremely important. What we gathered during those two hours would determine the quality and depth of the entire final experience.

We also wanted all our films to have a consistent look and feel, which we knew would be challenging without our crew on the shoot.

MediaStorm interviewed the recipients and gathered images to create stories about each of their careers. The resulting eight short films serve individually as biographical glimpses into the recipients’ work and collectively as a portrait of some of the important contributors to photography today.

This film was a collaboration with Harbers Studio and the International Center of Photography.

Harbers Studios turbocharges the efforts of charitable entrepreneurs by helping them tell their stories. Our goal is to help them articulate and share the value of the work they do so they can inspire others to help them do it. Working with some of the best filmmaking talent in the world, we create compelling visual narratives that enhance the endeavors of organizations working to make the world a better place.

The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to the practice and understanding of photography and the reproduced image in all its forms. Through our exhibitions, educational programs, and community outreach, we offer an open forum for dialogue about the role images play in our culture. Since our founding, we have presented more than 500 exhibitions and offered thousands of classes, providing instruction at every level. ICP is a center where photographers and artists, students and scholars can create and interpret the world of the image within our comprehensive educational facilities and archive.

As a privately funded nonprofit arts and education organization, ICP depends in large part on friends such as you for support. Your generosity is vital to ICP as it continues to grow and succeed in its mission: to present photography's extraordinary power to the public.

There are many ways to give to ICP: Donate to the Annual Fund, create a scholarship, sponsor exhibitions and education programs, contribute to the Collection, or make a planned gift.

Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.

Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about each of the recipients to screen at the awards ceremony and to display online. The films pay tribute to the contributions of each artist to the craft and field of photography and demonstrate ICP's commitment to them.