Martin Barzilai was born in Montevideo (Uruguay). His initial interest in photography began in his teenage years. In 1993 he attended a course in the Paris-based Louis Lumière college of Media and graduated with a degree in photography. He has travelled across South-America with a keen interest in political and social issues. He also went to Palestine-Israel in 1994, 2008 and 2009. His foremost motivation is to provide others with eye-witness' accounts of his travels. He has worked as a photographer and journalist with a number of daily national newspapers, weekly and specialist magazines. His work is distributed by Picturetank in France since 2006.