She began her career at 17, when one of her photographs of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza landed on the front page of The New York Times. In 2007, she worked at The New York Times as a photographic intern. Cahana then received a scholarship to work at Benetton's research communication center in Treviso, Italy. There, she contributed to stories for COLORS magazine, covering issues in the Pacific islands of Vanuatu and Niue, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.