Amira Ziyan

Amira Ziyan was born in 1977 in Israel

Ziyan was born in 1977 in the Druze village of Yarka to a traditional family with religious parents. She has 7 brothers and 3 sisters. As a girl she faced many restrictions, but she chose to pursue higher education.

In 1999 she qualified in industrial chemistry at the Western Galilee College in Acre, and in 2003 she earned a teaching certificate. After her father had a stroke in 2004, she helped her brother in his photo shop, and the work drew her to photography. She earned a bachelor's degree in art and French at the University of Haifa in 2010 and a master's degree in art there in 2012.

Her work centers on staged photography, including portraits and arranged scenes without people. It deals with women, gender and identity in Druze society. Her exhibitions include "Bare Concrete" in 2016 and "Huna and Hunak" with designer Rami Tareef in 2017, both at the Kabrie Gallery.

She received the Ministry of Culture and Sport's Encouragement Prize in 2017 and the Oscar Handler Prize in 2022. Her works are held by the Knesset and the Haifa Museum of Art, among others. Since 2013 she has taught art at a middle school in Yarka, and in 2022 she opened her own studio and gallery there.