Rafael Ben-Ari


Rafael Ben-Ari is a Jewish Israeli-born multinational photojournalist, documentary photography travel photographer and camera operator based in Australia. Rafael is known for his on location travel photography from around the world and for his war photography when he was working in photojournalism as a photojournalist and war photographer documenting the war and conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Muslim Arab world from 2004 till 2012. In 2019 he was named one of the top 10 Best Stock Photographers in the world by Pouted Magazine.
WWW rafaelbenari.comIG rafaelbenari

Life and work

Rafael’s professional career started at the time Saddam Hussein and his armed forces invaded to Kuwait in 1990 when he served in the Israeli Air Force as Imagery Intelligence Aerial Reconnaissance Photographic Analyst and as Military Photographer for Special Operations Forces during The Gulf War.
Rafael's photography work is well recognized and his images appears in a large number of publications, magazines and websites on a daily basis all over the world. Among them: Time Magazine, The National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, The New York Times, NBC News, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Rough Guides, DK Eyewitness Travel Guides & Travel Books Fodor's travel guides. Rafael Ben-Ari has exhibited his photography work in Israel, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Mexico, Central America and South America.
Rafael’s photography work is well recognized and represented by the leading photo agencies include Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, and Adobe Stock. His images appear in a large number of TV programs, book publications, magazines, newspapers and websites all over the world on a daily basis. To name a few: The National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, The New York Times and many more.
Over the past decade Rafael focus on photography and filming documentary photography projects primarily documenting the cultures, landscapes, peoples, nature and wildlife in the Oceania geographical region. Rafael photographed extensively Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands.

Awards

Exhibitions

Published works

  • Biography and Photography article about Documentary Travel Photographer Rafael Ben Ari published in Camden Haven Local News Nov 2025.
  • Photo and biography published in Fotografos En La Calle "Photographers in Israel" Book
  • Photography and article about Rafael Ben-Ari published in "Scoop Magazine"

Education

Biographies

  • on Rafael Ben-Ari official site
  • on Newscom
  • on Israel Photo Tours
  • Israel Photo Guide