Photojournalist Ahmed Jadallah was born in Palestine in 1970. He is the oldest of four brothers, who are also award-winning photographers. Jadallah studied science and worked as a teacher before joining a local newspaper in Gaza as a correspondent in 1989. He became a cameraman and producer in 1990 for CBS, where he befriended photographers and helped guide them through Gaza while they taught him photography. Jadallah joined Reuters in 1992 during the first Palestinian intifada and, as senior photographer, managed the Reuters Palestinian teams in coordination with the regional chief photographer. In 2003 he nearly lost his legs to a tank shell that exploded while he was photographing a Palestinian refugee camp. The image he took at the time won first prize at the World Press Photo awards in the Spot News Singles category. He spent several months recovering from his injuries in London, and after that moved to Dubai, U.A.E., where he worked as a senior Middle East and North Africa photographer. Jadallah continues to photograph areas of conflict in the Middle East, as well as sports and other events.
His photographs have been exhibited in Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters (1995) at Visa Pour l’Image Perpignan; International Protection for Palestinian Children in the Occupied Territories (2003), House of Commons, London; Through Arab Eyes (2004), Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, part of Nazar – Photographs from the Arab World held at the 11th Noorderlicht Photofestival in 2004 and at FotoFest, Houston, in 2005; Looking Towards Palestine: Photographic Projections (2005), La Boca, Espacio de Cultura, Madrid; and WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath (2012), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In addition to his World Press Photo award, Jadallah received first prize for Best Photographic Picture in the Middle East from the Dubai Press Club in 2001; was named Reuters Journalist of the Year as part of the Best Team in 2004; was awarded for bravery in Palestine in 2003; and received an honorable mention in National Geographic’s All Roads Photography Award in 2006.
