UNICEF-Foto des Jahres 2017

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Mit der Auszeichnung "UNICEF-Foto des Jahres" prämiert UNICEF Deutschland einmal im Jahr Fotos und Fotoreportagen, die die Persönlichkeit und Lebensumstände von Kindern weltweit auf herausragende Weise dokumentieren. Hier die Preisträger 2017. Texte: Peter-Matthias Gaede, UNICEF.

Muhammed Muheisen

Syrien: Das Gesicht einer geschundenen Kindheit

Es ist Zahras Gesicht. Das Antlitz eines erst fünfjährigen syrischen Mädchens in einem Flüchtlingslager in Jordanien. Zahras Eltern sind mit ihr und sieben weiteren Kindern 2015 vor dem Krieg geflohen. Seither leben sie in einem Zelt. Der Vater, früher fuhr er Taxi und arbeitete auf seinem Hof, sucht Arbeit auf den Feldern des Jordantals; Schulbesuch ist seinen Kindern nicht möglich.

Als der Fotograf Muhammed Muheisen, 1981 in Jerusalem geboren, Zahra zum ersten Mal traf, da war sie bei weitem nicht das erste Flüchtlingskind, dem er begegnete. Die Tragödie im Mittleren Osten, auch in Pakistan und Afghanistan, ist dem bereits mit vielen hohen Auszeichnungen gewürdigten Fotografen, der lange Jahre für die Agentur AP unterwegs war, allzu vertraut.

Aber in Zahras Gesicht, in ihren Augen sah er das Schicksal hunderttausender Mädchen und Jungen konzentriert: die stille Traurigkeit der unschuldigsten Opfer von Krieg, Heimatverlust, Entwurzelung. Die Spuren einer Gewalterfahrung, der Kinder zunächst kaum etwas Anderes entgegenzusetzen haben als Ohnmacht und Fassungslosigkeit. Das Gesicht einer vielleicht für immer verlorenen Kindheit. 

Biografie: Muhammed Muheisen

Muhammed Muheisen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. He has been documenting the refugee crisis around the world for over a decade, he is a National Geographic Photographer and the founder of Everyday Refugees Foundation.

Muheisen was born in Jerusalem in 1981, graduated with a B.A. degree in journalism and political science. As the former Associated Press Chief Photographer for the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan he covered conflicts across the region as well documented major events in Europe, Asia, Africa and the U.S. He spent four years in Pakistan as AP’s Chief Photographer for the region, and for the last several years has been documenting the refugee crisis across Europe. Most recently his work has focused on the issue of stranded unaccompanied refugee minors for National Geographic Magazine.

Muhammed has covered major events in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the funeral of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the US led -war in Iraq, including the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the Yemeni revolution, the Syrian civil war as well as events in Saudi Arabia, China, Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan, France, The Netherlands, Serbia, South Africa including the funeral procession of Nelson Mandela.

His work has received numerous international awards, including:

Picture of the Year in 2007’s POYI, in 2014 the Oliver S. Gramling Award for journalism, and the same year he was named TIME Magazine’s Best Wire Photographer. Muheisen also won multiple prizes in: the APME News Photos Award, the John L. Dougherty Award, Asia Media Awards, National Headliner Awards, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Festival Du Scoop, China International Press Photo Contest, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, Sigma Delta Chi Awards, Xposure International Photography Festival Award and the MCF Engaged Journalist Award. As well, he was a participant of 2012 World Press Photo Joop Swart Master Class.

Muheisen served as a jury member in the 2016 Picture of the Year International, the 2015 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass and the 2013 Visa D’Or for Visa pour L’image and the 2017 LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards.

He is a member of the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award advisory committee at the International Women Media Foundation, the founder and Chairman of Everyday Refugees Foundation and a member of the nominating committee selecting the participants for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Master Class.

Among other exhibitions, a collection from a decade of his work about life in a war was exhibited in the French photo festival Visa pour L’Image in Perpignan, France. His work about refugees was exhibited at Festival des Libertes in Brussels, Belgium and work about the displaced people was shown at THE FENCE in Brooklyn, Atlanta, Boston and Houston, USA. Most recently a selection of his work was exhibited at Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah, UAE. 

Interview mit dem Preisträger Muhammed Muheisen