Born in Israel in 1957, Ophir holds a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He studied Social Studies and Semiotics at the New School of Social Research in New York and earned an MFA at Hunter College in New York. He has been teaching photography and contemporary art at major academic institutions in Israel since 1989, including at the School of Multidisciplinary Art at Shenkar, among others.
Ophir has exhibited his work in many solo-shows, including at The Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1995, 2013); the Mishkan Museum of Art, Ein Harod (1996); the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1997); Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco (1998); the Haifa Museum of Art (2001); Tate Modern, London (2001); the Borowsky Gallery, Philadelphia (2013); and the Second Beijing Photo Biennial and Symposium (2015). His has been widely exhibited around the world in many art venues.
He is the recipient of the Gérard Lévy Prize for Young Photographers from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (1992); the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sport Prize (2002); the George and Janet Jaffin Award from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation (2006); and the Constantiner Photography Award for Israeli Artists, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2013). Ophir’s works are included in many collections in Israel and around the world, among others at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; the Tate Modern, London; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Jewish Museum, New York; and the Jewish Museum, Frankfurt am Main.
