Kitra Cahana is a Canadian photographer who blurs the line between anthropologist and journalist.
Why you should listen
Kitra Cahana is a wanderer. The American-born photographer was raised in Canada and Sweden, with a father who worked as a rabbi and took his family along with him everywhere he traveled. Cahana's itinerant childhood is evident in her work, which has taken her to teenage "rainbow parties," Venezuelan spiritual rituals, Ukranian Ultra-Orthodox prayer sites, American boxcars and bus stops and many more places. The 2014 TED Fellow embeds herself in the societies she documents, playing the part of photojouralist as well as enthnographer.
Kitra Cahana’s TED Talks
More news and ideas from Kitra Cahana
Fellows Friday
What’s it like to live with locked-in syndrome? One family’s experience
October 17, 2014
Three years ago, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana suffered a rare brain stem stroke that left him fully conscious, yet his entire body paralyzed. It’s a condition known as “locked-in syndrome.” Last month, TED Fellow Kitra Cahana spoke of her father’s experience at TEDMED (watch her talk, “My father, locked in his body but soaring free”), revealing […]
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Living on the outside: Photographer Kitra Cahana documents nomadic cultures from within
May 30, 2014
After a childhood spent traveling the world with her rabbinical family, photographer Kitra Cahana found she couldn’t stop. With her camera as her vehicle, she began work as a documentary photographer, shooting for publications like The New York Times and National Geographic. When Cahana is not on assignment, she comes home to a life on the road […]
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Gallery: The fear and freedom of life on the road
May 28, 2014
Photojournalist Kitra Cahana has lived on the road since she was young, the oldest in a family of five with parents who often traveled for months on end. Here, the TED Fellow shares photos from her series about homeless living in the United States.
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