Martin Barzilai was born in Montevideo (Uruguay). In 1994 he obtained a photography degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière in Paris. He is particularly interested in political, social and environmental issues in his native continent, but he also worked on these themes in France, in Palestine-Israël and in Tunisia. He regularly collaborates with the press and different magazines (New York Times, Rolling Stone, L’Obs, Les Echos, Le Monde…). Martin Barzillai answers requests from the press, but also suggests personal topics which seek to question without being spectacular.
Since 2006 to 2017, his photographs were distributed by PictureTank in France.
Since January 2018, he is part of Haytham Pictures and distributed by REA.
In 2014 and 2015 Martin Barzillai was selected for the National Visual Arts Fair of Argentina, in Buenos Aires. Martin also has taught photography in Paris, Barcelona, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

In november 2017, he published the book "Refuzniks, dire non à l'armée en Israël" (Libertalia) with the support of Amnesty International France

In 2018, he received the first prize for the photo book competition at the festival Rendez-Vous Image (Strasbourg, France) where the art director was the photographer Paolo Woods.

Solo exhibitions :
« Operation Massacre in Montevideo » (1994) Publico - Paris 
« Communities at the heart of War » (2004) La Passerelle - Paris 
« Nights in Barcelona » (2007) Ultramarino - Barcelone 
« Territorio crudo » (2015) La Tribu - Buenos Aires
« Refuzniks, dire non à l’armée en Israël » (2017 - 2019) - Sète, Brest, Romans, Montpellier, Toulouse

 Collective exhibitions :
« Buenos Aires » (2008) Carré d’Art - Rennes
« E.CO » (2010) Antigua fabrica de Tabacos - Madrid
« Puerto Quilombo » (2012) CdF - Montevideo
« Behind closed gates » (2013) Latin-american Forum of photography - Sao Paulo
« Puerto Quilombo » (2014) Centro Cultural Recoleta - Buenos Aires 
« Behind closed gates » (2015) Photoquai - Paris
« La maison et le monde » (2016) galerie gare de Marlon - Paris
« Photography in Argentina » (2017) Getty Center - Los Angeles
« Adolescence » (2018) Festival du regard - Paris
« Paris de la peine » (2020) Maison du Japon - Paris
« Le grand bal masqué» (2020) Quartier rouge - Paris
« Le bal masqué solidaire» (2021) La Flèche d’Or - Paris