Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, 1975. Ghaith studied architecture in Baghdad University and had never travelled outside Iraq until after the recent war. A deserter from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army, Ghaith lived under ground in Baghdad for six years, changing his residence every few months to avoid detection and arrest.

He began making street photography in 2001 and determined to document conditions in Baghdad during the war. Arousing suspicion, he was arrested three days before the end of the war and, though he escaped by bribing his guards, he lost his cameras and all his film. The day after the fall of Baghdad, Ghaith satisfied an aching curiosity by walking into one of Saddam's palaces, talking his way past American guards by claiming to be a foreign journalist.

Soon after, Ghaith began writing for The Guardian, and Washington Post. His photographs began to appear in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Times (London), and others. He has deftly managed to photograph and write from the front lines of both the Sunni and Shia insurgency movements. He was one of the last journalists to work in insurgent-held Fallujah before the American all-out assault on that city in April, 2004. He also worked behind Mehdi Militia front lines during the American assault on Najaf in August of the same year. Ghaith was wounded by shrapnel to his head when U.S. helicopters fired rockets into a crowd of civilians on Baghdad's Haifa street in September. Of the six people seeking shelter from the attack behind a small street kiosk, Ghaith was the sole survivor.

Ghaith has continued his work, photographing for international publications and writing freelance for The Guardian, documenting the daily violence on the streets of Baghdad, inside stories of a culture in crisis, and the Iraqi elections in March.