Bahir Ayad

Bahir Ayad (born 1979) is an Algeria-born French photographer, based in Paris. In 2020 Ayad won the Rudger Male Nude Prize. His work is held in the collection of the Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris.

Ayad was born in Baraki, Algeria. He moved with his family to France when he was eleven years old and grew up in the suburbs of Paris.

From a very young age he showed an interest in photography and during his teenage years in France he started working as a photographer for fashion houses such as Yun Cosmetics, Keane Roy or Green Lab Studios, where he developed his technique as a photographer of male models.
After studying at art school in Paris, he did a master’s degree in digital photography and started shooting nude portraits, photomotage, collages and digital art.
His first exhibitions were on themes related to sexuality, identity and gender. From 2010 he became more interested in social issues and also in poster design, men’s fashion or urbanism.
He currently exhibits his works in museums all over Europe and Northern Africa.
His best known works are “Closet”, “Male Nudes” “Inside de Cage” and “Rebel without love”.