Mohammad Murad (Arabic: محمد مراد; born 1976) is a

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

i wildlife photographer who specializes in bird photography. His photographs have won various international awards.

Early life

Murad was born in

in 1976. He became interested in photography after watching his father take family photos and videos. Murad has a degree in Communication Engineering. Outside of photography, he works as a communication engineer in television broadcasting.

Career

Murad purchased his first professional camera in 2014 and began his photography career by joining the Kuwait Voluntary Work Center's Photography & Documentary Team. Later in the year, he joined the Birds Monitoring & Protecting Team at the Kuwait Environment Protection Society. Murad's photographs have been featured in the ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

'', ''

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'', the '' Kuwait Times'', and other publications. In 2015, he received his first photography awards, an Honorable Mention at the ND Awards and 2nd place at the 2015 Monochrome Awards for his black-and-white photo of a

white-tailed eagle The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), sometimes known as the 'sea eagle', is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which also ...

, which he took in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. In 2018, Murad was awarded the Merit Medal by the Hamdan International Photography Award for his black-and-white photography. He won first prize in the Artistic Vision category at the Festival de l'Oiseau et de la Nature International Wildbird Photo Competition in 2019. In the same year, ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'' reported that he was among the winners of the 2019 National Wildlife Magazine photo contest. In 2020, Murad won the Remarkable Artwork Award in the "Animals in Their Environment" category at the Siena International Photo Awards. Murad also won second place in the Urban Wildlife category at the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year Competition in 2021.

Awards

*2017–2018: Merit Medal Recipient, Hamdan International Photography Award (HIPA) *2018: First Place – Baby Animals, The National Wildlife Magazine Photo Contest *2019: Second Place – Amphibians and Reptiles, The National Wildlife Magazine Photo Contest *2019: Honorable Mention – Animals in Their Environment, Siena International Photo Awards *2020: Remarkable Artwork – Animals in Their Environment, Siena International Photo Awards *2021: Runner-Up – Urban Wildlife Category, Nature TTL Photographer of the Year Competition

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murad, Mohammad 1976 births Living people Kuwaiti photographers Kuwaiti people of Iranian descent Nature photographers