--- description: Honored with the ICP Infinity Award for Young Photographer 2013, Kitra Cahana makes poignant photographs of relationships that are personal and intertwined with her own nomadic history. title: Joy, Compassion and Fulfillment: Kitra Cahana’s Spiritual Transformation image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0016c88ff5b2b8f3/6987a4de2dce0184399e0301/xcahana_father_006.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Joy, Compassion and Fulfillment: Kitra Cahana's Spiritual Transformation by [Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/) ## Phil Bicker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 1, 2013 8:00 AM CUT ![Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013.

"You have to believe you're paralyzed to play the part of a quadriplegic; I don't. In my mind and in my dreams every night I Chagall-man float over the city, twirl and swirl. With my toes kissing the floor. I know nothing about this statement of man without motion. Everything has motion. The heart pumps, the bloods race course, the lungs culminate, the body heaves, the mouth moves, the eyes turn inside-out. We never stagnate. Life triumphs up and down." —Rabbi Cahana](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0016c88ff5b2b8f3/6987a4de2dce0184399e0301/xcahana_father_006.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2) Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013\. "You have to believe you're paralyzed to play the part of a quadriplegic; I don't. In my mind and in my dreams every night I Chagall-man float over the city, twirl and swirl. With my toes kissing the floor. I know nothing about this statement of man without motion. Everything has motion. The heart pumps, the bloods race course, the lungs culminate, the body heaves, the mouth moves, the eyes turn inside-out. We never stagnate. Life triumphs up and down." —Rabbi Cahana Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013\. "You have to believe you're paralyzed to play the part of a quadriplegic; I don't. In my mind and in my dreams every night I Chagall-man float over the city, twirl and swirl. With my toes kissing the floor. I know nothing about this statement of man without motion. Everything has motion. The heart pumps, the bloods race course, the lungs culminate, the body heaves, the mouth moves, the eyes turn inside-out. We never stagnate. Life triumphs up and down." —Rabbi CahanaKitra Cahana by [Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/) ## Phil Bicker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 1, 2013 8:00 AM CUT Kitra Cahana’s photographs have received notable recognition, appearing on the front page of the _New York Times_ and winning first place in the 2010 World Press awards. Earlier this year, she was named a TED Fellow. And tonight at ICP, she will be honored with the [2013 Infinity Award for Young Photographer](http://www.icp.org/support-icp/infinity-awards "undefined") — Cahana is just 25 years old. Cahana, born in Florida, raised in Sweden and Canada, was introduced to photography at a young age. “I started taking to photography around the age of 12,” she told TIME via email. “My father, realizing my interest in art, began giving me assignments to photograph through a positive lens. He would say: ‘This month focus on ‘joy’ or ‘compassion’ or ‘fulfillment.’ It began to shape the way I perceived my environment.” After high school, Cahana traveled to Israel and began working professionally as a photographer. She balanced academic studies at Hebrew University with an internship at Ma’ariv, a daily Israeli newspaper, tagging along with the other photojournalists in Jerusalem and the West Bank. News articles from 2005 showed Chevy Cobalts had ignition shut-off problems, but GM officials apparently didn't read them — including Debbie Dingell, who is now running for Congress in Michigan “I went to Gush Katif, the Israeli bloc of settlements, in early summer of 2005\. I was 17 and too young for a press pass, so once I was past the military checkpoint, I didn’t leave for two and a half months. I wasn’t photographing for anyone in particular, but submitted a few images to the EPA wire for consideration.” On the first day of the Israeli Disengagement that year, one of Cahana’s photos was used on the front page of the _New York Times_. “I realized my ability, recognized my medium, and decided that, as challenging as it is to study and work professionally, I would try.” Cahana returned to her former home, Montreal, to study philosophy at McGill University. There, she came to realize that really seeing issues and maintaining a strong ethical code were equally important aims. Throughout her studies, she periodically took short assignments and internships and devoted her summers to photo projects. Since taking up photography full-time, Cahana’s nomadic way of life has strongly echoed that of her upbringing; her family moved frequently, to communities where her father served as a rabbi. “My siblings and I spent much of our childhoods traveling with our parents. They kept us in backpacks and kept us asking questions, opening up our sense of the grandeur and complexities of every community we encountered.” Another important family influence was her grandmother, Alice Lok Cahana, an artist and Holocaust survivor whose work, Cahana says, has informed her own vision. “Her paintings are layered, textured and deeply symbolic. They weave the light with the dark, the broken with the divine. That has always been a quality I strive for in my photographs.” Cahana’s earlier work dealt with various themes — Jewish identity, gender identity, spiritual identity. “In many ways, I came of age by photographing and discovering, learning about myself as I was learning about my subjects.” The one major body of work that Cahana created specifically on assignment was in Austin, Texas, for _National Geographic_, where she embedded in a suburban high school for two and a half months. “I’m interested in creating documents that rely as much on the written word as they do on the photographic image. But in order to do that, one really has to embed in others’ lives. Within a month and a half of being at the high school in Texas, I had made friends with most cliques.” On and off over the past three years, Cahana has been documenting and living among nomadic youth in America. “Documenting within the punk nomadic world is different. There, I feel more like I’ve joined my tribe — a different way of life, but I also feel very much at home there.” Ultimately, Cahana is often drawn to stories about relationships, which are (or become) personal and intertwined with her own history. For instance, “the Ben Baruchs are a religious Jewish family living in Safed in northern Israel, a town where my father’s family lived since the 18th century. They had their own child with Down Syndrome, adopted another, and took in and raised several others with Down Syndrome. The images of their lives follow the evolution of a love story between their own son, Avichai and one of the adopted daughters, Kirin, from their early teenage years to their wedding and the beginning of their home-making together.” This past year Cahana has been living between Ramallah and Jerusalem and working on stories about everyday Israelis and Palestinians who manage to foster relationships with each other. “I look for stories that are nuanced. I grew up with both extreme right- and left-wing propaganda around me. The rhetoric is exhausting; it makes caricatures of the people living on the land, and excuses corrupt and self-interested leaders.” Recently, Cahana has grappled with a poignant, personal project in Montreal. Two years ago, her father had a brain stem stroke that left him totally paralyzed with the exception of eye movement, but with total cognitive capacity. “I spent four months living with him in the Neurological Institute in Montreal. He communicated his thoughts through a blinking system, slowly, tenderly communicating whatever he wanted to say. We spent hours each day deep in communication. I documented much of his recovery — his first breath, my sister tending to his atrophying limbs, my mother and father kissing, but the images were not communicating the spiritual transformation we were all going through. I needed to find a different aesthetic vocabulary. The resulting images are just the beginning of this exploration. This work is about the mind’s endless search for its body and vice-versa.” “When I was 12, my father would say: ‘Focus on the word ‘joy’ or ‘compassion’ or ‘fulfillment’.’ And for a month, I would photograph through a lens of joy or compassion. It forced me to begin practicing each of those attributes, allowing my own inner being to deeply change.” Her father’s words have become her mantra. Cahana continues to grow — emotionally, spiritually, artistically. It’s difficult to believe she is just 25 years old. --- [**_Kitra Cahana_**](http://www.kitracahana.com/home/ "undefined") _is a documentary photographer. In 2013, she was named a TED fellow._ **_Phil Bicker_** _is a Senior Photo Editor at_ _TIME_ _._ --- ![Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013.

"You have to believe you're paralyzed to play the part of a quadriplegic; I don't. In my mind and in my dreams every night I Chagall-man float over the city, twirl and swirl. With my toes kissing the floor. I know nothing about this statement of man without motion. Everything has motion. The heart pumps, the bloods race course, the lungs culminate, the body heaves, the mouth moves, the eyes turn inside-out. We never stagnate. Life triumphs up and down." —Rabbi Cahana](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0016c88ff5b2b8f3/6987a4de2dce0184399e0301/xcahana_father_006.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013\. "You have to believe you're paralyzed to play the part of a quadriplegic; I don't. In my mind and in my dreams every night I Chagall-man float over the city, twirl and swirl. With my toes kissing the floor. I know nothing about this statement of man without motion. Everything has motion. The heart pumps, the bloods race course, the lungs culminate, the body heaves, the mouth moves, the eyes turn inside-out. We never stagnate. Life triumphs up and down." —Rabbi Cahana Kitra Cahana ![Karen and Rabbi Ronnie Cahana kiss. Montreal, Canada, 2011.

“Oh my wife. I belong to you. I see the skin fold hurry under your eyelids. I want to be your sleep. I walk along your long grace. Your bones are hard to everyone’s stance but not to my fingers’ touch. There are tender demands when you open your lips, your tongue, your teeth. Your teeth are teaching my empty throat. Am I only just now breathing? G-d has given me this. We are face, two legs, alike. We have no weight. Wherever we are, the world is turning. This is nonesuch time.” —Rabbi Cahana](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt581a818d247a6064/6987a4ddcd6848d06509c53b/xcahana_father_030.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Karen and Rabbi Ronnie Cahana kiss. Montreal, Canada, 2011\. “Oh my wife. I belong to you. I see the skin fold hurry under your eyelids. I want to be your sleep. I walk along your long grace. Your bones are hard to everyone’s stance but not to my fingers’ touch. There are tender demands when you open your lips, your tongue, your teeth. Your teeth are teaching my empty throat. Am I only just now breathing? G-d has given me this. We are face, two legs, alike. We have no weight. Wherever we are, the world is turning. This is nonesuch time.” —Rabbi Cahana Kitra Cahana ![Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013.

“I singsong my body as its own cradle. Back and up head and down. There is a floating whir on my skin. Only a year and a half later will it dissipate. Its the skinny skin that crinkles. My eyes stay closed. All of life now will forever be whispers. But G-d’s ear is here.” —Rabbi Cahana](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e0a5d344316fce8/6987a4dca988cadfb76aefb4/xcahana_father_002.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Rabbi Ronnie Cahana. Montreal, Canada, 2013\. “I singsong my body as its own cradle. Back and up head and down. There is a floating whir on my skin. Only a year and a half later will it dissipate. Its the skinny skin that crinkles. My eyes stay closed. All of life now will forever be whispers. But G-d’s ear is here.” —Rabbi Cahana Kitra Cahana ![Rabbi Ronnie Cahana and his daughter Sapira at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Montreal, Canada, 2012.

"When my brain exploded my body flew apart onto my backyard, only ten times larger. My mind landed on top of the hedges. One arm a mile away, another arm over here. Legs here, legs there. The torso somewhere else. Each limb had a miniature limb next to it. One dead arm and its twin, a three-quarter arm, flickering and dancing about. One leg lying there like a cast of itself, the other smaller one live and still in motion. They were tied together, the one with the soul and the one with the physicality. It was my job to somehow bring these limbs all back together. To bring the body back to the head. This was my spiritual duty." —Rabbi Cahana ](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd44d723e57ed794f/6987a4dd35ba6f11d9c09aba/xcahana_father_022.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp) Rabbi Ronnie Cahana and his daughter Sapira at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Montreal, Canada, 2012\. "When my brain exploded my body flew apart onto my backyard, only ten times larger. My mind landed on top of the hedges. One arm a mile away, another arm over here. Legs here, legs there. The torso somewhere else. Each limb had a miniature limb next to it. One dead arm and its twin, a three-quarter arm, flickering and dancing about. One leg lying there like a cast of itself, the other smaller one live and still in motion. They were tied together, the one with the soul and the one with the physicality. It was my job to somehow bring these limbs all back together. To bring the body back to the head. This was my spiritual duty." —Rabbi Cahana Kitra Cahana  Avichai, Keren and Shalhevet Ben Baruch are photographed in their living room. Tzfat, Israel, 2006. Kitra Cahana  Shalhevet Ben Baruch in her bedroom. Tzfat, Israel, 2006. Kitra Cahana  Keren Ben Baruch screams as her sister, Shalhevet, hides behind a closet door, as an airstrike siren goes off during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War. Tzfat, Israel, 2006. Kitra Cahana  Keren, Avichai and Shalhevet Ben Baruch sit in Shalhevet’s room a few days after Keren and Avichai’s wedding. Tzfat, Israel, 2012. Kitra Cahana  Newlyweds Avichai and Keren Ben Baruch prepare a gift for their neighbors. Tzfat, Israel, 2012. Kitra Cahana  Avichai Ben Baruch, a few days after his wedding. Tzfat, Israel, 2012. Kitra Cahana  Anderson high school cheerleaders stretch before a game. Austin, Texas, 2010. Kitra Cahana  Anderson high school football players stretch before a game. Austin, Texas, 2010. Kitra Cahana  A group of high school students meet for their monthly "Fight Club" meeting in one of their member's backyard. Austin, Texas, 2011. Kitra Cahana  Teenagers practice their skateboarding moves in a popular secret hangout called The Slab. Austin, Texas, 2010 Kitra Cahana  Dandilion Olsen crawls through the gap in a fence behind a church. Austin, Texas, 2010. Kitra Cahana  Yasmine Wright takes a moment’s rest on the porch outside of a New Years Eve party. Austin, Texas, 2011. Kitra Cahana  Moe at the hot springs. New Mexico, 2010. Kitra Cahana  Ruby and Ashley in a boxcar. Wisconsin, 2011. Kitra Cahana  Dirty Kids Corner at the National Rainbow Gathering. New Mexico, 2009. Kitra Cahana  Ruby by the train yard. St. Paul, Minnesota, 2011. Kitra Cahana  A man possessed by an Indian spirit jumps through a fire during the Baile en Candela ritual. Sorte Mountain, Venezuela, 2009. Kitra Cahana  A DC-9 plane on its way to Kinshasa crashed into a crowded marketplace of Goma killing dozens. Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2008. Kitra Cahana  Young boys from the Breslav Chassidic sect watch as a Ukrainian news presenter gives a report about the yearly Jewish pilgrimage to Uman on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashannah. Uman, Ukraine, 2007 Kitra Cahana  Two Breslav Chassids talk to each other in a secluded corner of the Uman forest. Uman, Ukraine, 2007. Kitra Cahana  An oncoming storm looms above the Ukrainian sky as an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man and woman complete their evening prayers on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashannah. Uman, Ukraine, 2007. Kitra Cahana  Moshe the Chassid sleeping after the Rosh Hashannah holiday. Uman, Ukraine, 2007. 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