Zohra Bensemra was born in Algiers, Algeria, in October 1968, and grew up seeing her older brother take amateur pictures. Around the age of six, she started imitating him and taking his cameras when he was not at home. One day her brother found out what she had been doing and screamed at her, but later got her a small camera for herself and she started by taking pictures of her classmates and her love for photography has been growing ever since. Her work usually covers “conflict, humanitarian issues, and stories about women and politics” and is largely based in countries suffering from internal conflict – social, economic, or humanitarian. Bensemra stated that her goal when photographing events is to promote a better understanding of the conflict to challenge those in power to improve the situation. Her favourite assignments are stories related to people’s struggle for citizenship and human rights against dominating forces.