“Nobody leaves home unless they are forced.”

It is a sentence that has followed Muhammed Muheisen across continents and conflicts, and one that framed his address at the ongoing 10th edition of the Xposure International Photography Festival 2026 as he challenged photographers to rethink how displacement is documented, represented, and remembered.

Speaking during a talk “Moments in Time: The Ethics Behind the Image”, Muheisen argued that the most meaningful visual narratives do not emerge from moments of shock or urgency, but from time, proximity,and sustained human connection. His message was direct: ethical photography is not about access, but about responsibility.

“Photography has always been a force for good for me,” Muheisen said, reflecting on a career shaped by conflict and consequences. He joined The Associated Press in 2001, covering the conflict occurring in Palestine before documenting the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, an experience he described as irreversible. “War is the darkest place to be. I never remained the same person after that.”

Over more than two decades working across Yemen, Afghanistan, and Syria, Muheisen recounted losing colleagues and witnessing profound personal loss. Yet his focus, he explained, increasingly shifted away from frontline spectacle toward civilians, particularly children, whose lives continue long after headlines move on. “When I photograph, I want to change stereotypes,” he said.

 “These images are voices, messages and testimonies that live forever.”

Central to Muheisen’s approach is long-term engagement as an ethical counterweight to crisis-driven imagery. He cited his decade-long documentation of Zahra Mahmoud, a Palestinian refugee in Jordan whose portrait was named UNICEF Photo of the Year in 2017. “Nothing changed in her life even after the award,” he said. “So I kept documenting. Ten years later, she has grown up now, goes to school, plays music and has a home.”

Trust, he stressed, is not assumed, but earned. Describing a Time magazine assignment documenting Afghan refugee mothers in Pakistan, Muheisen explained how access followed respect, not intrusion. “We never invade privacy or culture. We become closer to communities by respecting them,” he said. Through patience, he noted, ordinary life begins to appear alongside trauma: births, education, play, and resilience.

A turning point came in 2015 while covering refugee arrivals on the Greek island of Lesbos. “I saw people who looked like me and spoke familiar languages,” Muheisen said. “That’s when photography became a bridge and a responsibility.” The experience led him to establish Everyday Refugees, a foundation supporting displaced communities through education and advocacy.

Throughout the session, Muheisen urged photographers, editors, and institutions to move away from extractive storytelling models toward narratives that preserve dignity and complexity. Recalling encounters with unaccompanied child refugees in sub-zero conditions in Serbia while working with National Geographic, he returned to the human reality behind displacement. “Nobody leaves home unless they are forced,” he said.

Muheisen is among more than 420 photographers and visual artists participating in Xposure 2026, which features 95 exhibitions, over 3,200 artworks, and 126 talks and panel discussions, with contributors from more than 60 countries.