Gabriel Chaim

Gabriel Chaim (born 1981 in Oriximiná or Belém, Pará) is a Brazilian journalist, documentarist, photographer and camera operator who usually works in conflict zones around the world, especially in the Middle East.

Initially working in gastronomy, Chaim wanted to photograph meals in refugee camps and became an expert in war and conflicts. He covered conflicts and refugee crises in Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine and had his contents published in outlets such as The Guardian, CNN, Der Spiegel and G1; footage captured by him with a drone in the city of Kobanî, at the border of Syria and Turkey, were displayed by Irish band U2 during their iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour in 2015. He has interviewed subjects such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (former president of Iran) and Volodymyr Zelensky (president of Ukraine). but it went bankrupt; he also opened a bar, which didn't succeed, either. He left the course in its last semester to work in a restaurant in Spello, Italy, invited by a friend or 2012. The work generated an homonymous exhibition at the São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound.

Wars and conflicts coverage When on vacation from his photography course in Italy, he traveled to Iran and to refugee camps, initially willing to photograph what people were eating. Two other photographers, one German and one Turkish, were also arrested with him.

In 2020, he spent the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic working in a hospital in Baghdad, generating material which would later become a BBC documentary.

Documentaries On 12 December 2015, GloboNews aired his documentary Síria em Fuga (Runaway Syria), with stories of refugees of the Syrian civil war, including an interview with Alan Kurdi's father; Alan being a symbol of this humanitarian crisis. The effort won a silver medal at the New York Festivals.

In 2019, GloboNews won the silver medal at the New York Festivals for his documentary Margens de uma Guerra: Heróis e Vítimas em Mossul (Margins of a War: Heroes and Victims in Mosul), which covers the efforts by the Iraqi Special Operations Forces to retake the city of Mosul from the ISIS and its consequences to the civilian population.

In 2022, he produced the documentary Abrigo — Inocentes sob Ataque (Shelter — Innocents under Attack), in which he tells stories of Ukrainian victims of Russian attacks as the former is invaded by the latter. The production debuted on GloboNews and was later made available on Globoplay. It was nominated for the International Emmy Awards Current Affairs & News.

On Christmas 2024, GloboNews aired the documentary Salma: sobre raízes e perdas (Salma: About Roots and Losses), about the Israel-Hezbollah conflicts.

Exhibitions Chaim had some of his works exhibited on different occasions. In January 2014, his pictures of refugees of the Syrian civil war were exhibited in Belém, and later in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In November 2015, other images of his taken in the Syrian war were exhibited at the Zipper Gallery in São Paulo, in a partnership with Human Rights Watch.

By the end of 2021, he had another exhibition, this time with images taken in Brazil, when he followed the Army and the Federal Police as they acted against illegal gold mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory between Roraima and Amazonas.

Personal life Chaim was born to Lebanese parents. He lives in São Paulo, has two children who, in 2023, were 14 and 8 years old.

In an interview om Conversa com Bial, Chaim said he struggles to go back to normality after returning from the front. He also believes seeing shocking things such as dead children through a camera lens helps alleviate the effect it could have if he saw all that directly.