AP names Muhammed Muheisen as chief Mideast photographer

CAIRO (AP) — The Associated Press has named award-winning photographer Muhammed Muheisen, frequently honored for his striking photos of people in their everyday environment, as its chief photographer for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In his new role, Muheisen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, will take the lead on distinctive projects across the region. The appointment was announced Wednesday by Ian Phillips, AP’s Middle East News Director.

Muheisen, 34, joined the AP in 2001, and for the last four years he has been AP’s chief photographer for Pakistan, based in Islamabad.

He covered many defining events in the Middle East: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the U.S.-led war in Iraq, including the capture of Saddam Hussein, and the funeral of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

He has gone on assignment to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, China, France and South Africa.

Muheisen’s work has received many international awards. In 2005 and 2013, he was part of AP teams that won Pulitzer Prizes for breaking news photography in Iraq and Syria. He was named Time magazine’s Best Wire Photographer of 2013 and was a participant in the World Press Photo 2012 Joop Swart Master Class. He also won the AP’s Oliver S. Gramling Award for journalism.

Muheisen’s photography has been exhibited in galleries and at events around the world. In 2015, his works were part of the outdoor photographic exhibition THE FENCE in Brooklyn, Boston, Atlanta and Houston.

“You just want to frame Muheisen’s best work and put it on a wall,” said Phillips, who oversees AP’s video, photo and text coverage of the Middle East. “In the toughest of environments, he captures beauty, hope and tragedy in singular fashion. The quality of his shots also reflects the patient manner in which he works and his empathy for the subject matter.”

Maya Alleruzzo, AP’s regional photo editor for the Middle East, said Muheisen’s work “has a way of connecting us all through his lens.”

“We understand more about the world through his photographs of the daily lives of people — from the slums of Pakistan, on the front lines in Syria, refugee camps in Jordan to the streets of the West Bank.”

Muheisen, a Jordanian national, was born in Jerusalem.