Saturday March 18, 2006, Baghdad, Baghdad , Iraq

MSF in Chad near the border with Sudan

As they crouch at the banks of the Tigris River, Mandaeans splash themselves with the water as they prepare to baptize themselves and their cookware in its current on March 18, 2006. During the ceremony, the Mandaeans wear the white clothes they call Resta and leave their modern worldly clothes behind. Some 15,000 to 20,000 people of the minority Mandaean religious faith live in Iraq. The religion, which predates Islam in the region of Iraq, holds John the Baptist as a central person to its history. The full name of the religion, Mandaeands Sabians, means baptized, from the meaning of ÒSaba,Ó and, knowledge of ÒMenda,Ó from the Mandiac language. The name thusly means, those who are baptized and who know the religion of God, according to the Mandaean Research Centre in Baghdad, Iraq. Baptism is an important ritual to the Mandaeans and as the sun rises on Saturday March 18th, the beginning of Bronaia, five days of the celebration of creation began for the Mandaeans. To celebrate, the Mandaeans baptize themselves and their cooking utensils to be used for the great feasts that will follow throughout the five days. Baptism starts with the reading of verses from the book of prayer with the followers holding the bottom, then the top, of the crossed limbs of an olive branch draped in a shroud. After the reading of the prayers, the believers walk to the banks of the flowing Tigris River and crouch by its banks asking for permission of the water to baptize themselves by dunking themselves in its water three times. The religion believes the world is made up of two sources, the world of light in the north, and the world of darkness in the south. On these five days, the Mandaeans do not acknowledge the coming of night and celebrate five days straight.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Saturday April 8, 2006, Treguine, Chad

MSF in Chad near the border with Sudan

The International Red Cross distributes food from the World Food Program to refugees from the Darfur area of Sudan and internally displaced persons at the Treguine refugee camp in Chad. JanJuweed Militia have terrorized close to 300,000 to 400,000 people in SudanÕs Darfur region causing a flood of refugees to flee to Chad where the UN and nongovernmental agencies have set up camps to help feed and house them. The World Food Program has been rushing to supply these camps with food before the rainy season starts in June.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Saturday April 8, 2006, Adre, Chad

MSF in Chad near the border with Sudan

Abdallah Souleyman, age 28, is waiting for a blood biopsy to see if he has Lymphoma on April 8, 2006. The small hospital has a blood lab that is able to do blood work for patients. Abdallah is treated by Dr. Peter Reynaud who makes rounds at the eastern Chadian Adre hospital checking in on a full range of patients from the maternity ward to the intensive care ward. Dr. Reynaud uses a translator to talk with patients and check in on their progress. Dr. Peter Reynaud is a Louisiana native working with Doctors Without Borders in Adre, Chad. Dr. Reynaud came to Chad after working in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. He is drawn to working for Doctors Without Borders out of a sense of adventure in his work and his universal compassion for people all over the world. He also feels working at the Adre hospital makes him a better doctor as he has to use his human senses and intuition to diagnose patient's needs. Many doctors working at hospitals with the latest modern technology will sometimes run tests just to shield them from any malpractice suits.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday February 28, 2006, Baghdad, Baghdad , Iraq

Crowds help to put out the fire from cars, hit by a car bomb in the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad, which killed at least four people and wounded about 15 others. The car bomb exploded across the street from the Shiite Abdul Rassul Ali Mosque. Baghdad suffered from car bombs and violence today with four explosions killing about 15 people and wounding many others. One U.S. soldier was killed west of Baghdad and two British soldiers were also killed in other violence.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Wednesday January 18, 2006, Baghdad, Baghdad , Iraq

MSF in Chad near the border with Sudan

Iraqi police survey the scene of a car bomb in southern Baghdad that wounded three people, according to an official in the Iraqi Interior Ministry. Shiite political leader Abdul Aziz al-HakimÕs home is several blocks away from the scene.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Friday June 18, 2004, Beijing, China

China

A Chinese soldier stands guard at the Monument of the PeopleÕs Heroes in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China on Friday, June 18, 2004 as a tourist walk past the monument on right. ÒThe PeopleÕs Heroes are ImmortalÓ written by Chairman Mao is engraved on the monument which was built in 1952.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday September 16, 2003, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

Border Mexico US

Juan Carlos Silva lights a cigarette with his good hand while reflecting on his journey to Nogales, Mexico from his home in Granada, Nicaragua on September 16, 2003. Silva is sleeping in an abandoned and burned home filled with human excrement and garbage while he waits for his broken hand to heal. Silva broke his hand when he fell asleep and rolled off a train he was hitching a ride on through Mexico. After catching another train, he rode it for five more days with his broken hand until he found aid in a Nogales, Mexico hospital. Silva plans to cross the U.S./Mexico border once his hand heals so that he can find work to support his two daughters back home.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday June 10, 2003, Baghdad, Baghdad , Iraq

Marines Anbar

A mother pleads with hospital staff and offers them money to look at her daughter, as she carries her ill child into the Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad, Iraq on June 10, 2003. The looting and random violence around the capital left the hospital ill equipped or staffed to deal with the daily needs of Baghdad's population. Children arrived at the hospital with regular frequency after playing with unexploded ordnance or from running through looted buildings.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Wednesday June 4, 2003, Baghdad, Baghdad , Iraq

Theater Iraq

Actors of the al-Rasheed Theater Company of Baghdad, Iraq perform ÒObey the Devil,Ó a dance performance adaptation of William ShakespeareÕs ÒOthello,Ó on June 4, 2003. The performance is the al-Rasheed TheaterÕs first full production after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The front lobby of the theater was damaged by coalition bombing during the invasion and the event was an attempt to raise funds for rebuilding. Three years after this performance the theater remains closed and in disrepair.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Thursday November 11, 2004, Fallujah, Anbar , Iraq

The Marines of 3-5 India Company second Paltoon attack Fallujah.

Squad leader, Corporal Eric Shelvy, with the second squad second platoon of India Company of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, directs his squad to move forward after using a tank to break down the wall of a home during a house to house search for militants in the city of Fallujah. The Marines advanced in line with tanks on the roads for direct fire support or for breaching homes. As Marines encounter close firefights in the homes of Fallujah, the Marines' standard tactic is to withdraw from the house where insurgents are ensconced, in order to allow the main gun of the tank to annihilate the building.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Friday October 1, 2004, Samarra, Salah ad din , Iraq

Iraq Samarra attack

U.S. soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division, 1st battalion, 14th regiment, Alpha Company, who are attached to the 1st Infantry Division for the attack, advance past the bodies of insurgents killed during the attack to take back Samarra from insurgent control. The operation circled the city of Samarra with four battalions. After the initial attack the city is to be held with 500 Iraqi National Guard units after the fight.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Sunday September 12, 2004, Baghdad, Bagdad , Iraq

Iraq Attacks

Iraqis dance on top of a U.S. Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle that was left burning on BaghdadÕs Haifa Street in the morning hours of Sunday Sept. 12. After a U.S. patrol of about six U.S. armored vehicles left the area, residents clamored as they climbed on the vehicle and threw rocks at it, even as the ordnance inside was exploding. The Green Zone was also hit with mortar and rocket attacks and smoke could be seen coming out of the Green Zone.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Wednesday July 28, 2004, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

Iraq Dora Power station

An Iraqi worker illuminates a pipe fitting with a flashlight as he works with a Siemens supervisor to rebuild the number-three steam power generator of BaghdadÕs Dora power station. The power plant, with its two aging Italian made steam turbine generators and three operational gas generators, produces about 220 megawatts of power each day. Two hundred-twenty megawatts is just a fraction of the more than 2000 megawatts needed to supply the city of Baghdad, according to Dora electricity plant manager Bashir Kaliph.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday June 29, 2004, Shanghai, China

China

Chinese children, dressed in tutus, run out the back of the theater where they have just performed, to meet their parents at the Children's Palace in Shanghai, China on Tue. June 29, 2004. The Children's Palace is a place where Shanghai's parents send their mostly only children for extra learning of the arts after school and on weekends. Chinese parents with only children spare no expense for their children's education. With 2.8 million students graduating college in China this year, according to Newsweek, these children are sure to enter the job market as some of the top students in the world by the time they graduate.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday March 1, 2005, West Of Al-Qurnah, Basra, Iraq

al-Qurnah Marsh Arabs Shatt al-Arab al-Hammar Marsh

Canoes loaded with reeds from the Hammar marsh, about 50 miles north of Basra, wait to be unloaded. The reeds are to be made into reed mats, and a variety of other products that are sold for money or used in the community. Reeds are the basic building product for homes and fences in the traditional marsh Arab culture. The post Saddam Hussein marshes of the south of Iraq are once again becoming vibrant places as marsh Arabs return to their traditional homes. Several organizations are involved in supporting the livelihood of the marsh Arabs but the focus of those efforts range from attempting to recreate the marsh to transforming former marshland into an agricultural use.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Saturday February 19, 2005, Baghdad, Iraq

Baghdad Ashoura bombs

ShiÕite men with blood spilling from a cut made in their scalp shake their swords and chant praises for Imam, in a procession for Ashoura, the holiest day for their religion, at the holy ShiÕite Kadhimiya Mosque. Thousands marched through the streets as they demonstrate their self inflicted empathy for the pain suffered by Imam Hussein and 72 of his supporters when they were besieged for ten days and killed in a battle for the caliphate of the Muslim community outside of Karbala about 680 AD.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday February 1, 2005, Najaf, Najaf , Iraq

Najaf Election Martyr cemetery

Karim Rahim Judi Yacoubi, bottom left, holds the corpse of his dead brother, Naim, age 37, as he and his brothers, Salim, center in green jacket, and Hadi, right, scream out in grief in the washroom where NaimÕs body was being prepared for burial in the Najaf cemetery on February 1, 2005. Naim was killed during a suicide bombing on Election Day in Baghdad. Naim was killed while he was taking tea to election officials at an Iskin neighborhood polling station where he had voted earlier that day. The family had been delayed in taking the body to Najaf for burial because of the election holiday travel ban. While many Iraqis were joyous to have the opportunity to vote, others paid the ultimate price.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday February 1, 2005, Najaf, Iraq

Najaf Election Martyr cemetery

A gravedigger reaches for the body of Naim Rahim Judi Yacoubi, age 37, to lower him into his grave. Naim was killed during a suicide bombing during Election Day in Baghdad on February 1, 2005. Naim was killed while he was taking tea to election officials at an Iskin neighborhood polling station where he had voted earlier that day. The family had been delayed in taking the body to Najaf for burial because of the election holiday travel ban. While many Iraqis were joyous to have the opportunity to vote, others paid the ultimate price.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Monday November 29, 2004, Fallujah, Anbar , Iraq

The Marines of 3-5 India Company second Paltoon attack Fallujah.

"I can tell you we killed hundreds of people in that city, hundreds of insurgents. They were lying all over the place," said Lt. Col. Patrick Malay, the battalion commander for the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines when talking about the number of combatants in the battle for Fallujah. Three weeks after the start of the battle, this insurgent skull lies decomposing in a home. The brutality of the Fallujah battlefield was burned into the minds of the Marines who fought in that city.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Sunday July 24, 2005, Mosul, Ninewa, Iraq

1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment Mosul

Four men captured during a raid by Iraqi Army and U.S. soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, Bravo Company, are guided out of a Stryker armored vehicle and lead to the Iraqi Army post for holding and interrogation. The men are charged with being part of a four-man mortar and improvised explosive device (IED) team in the Islah Zeral neighborhood of Mosul. U.S. and Iraqi Army forces raided their home and detained the men after receiving a tip from Iraqi Army intelligence that the men were part of a skilled mortar team as well as making IEDs. The soldiers hoped that the detained men would lead them to their mortars but they did not. The men were taken into Iraqi Army custody and then later released to U.S. custody. One of the men detained was a Master Sergeant in Saddam HusseinÕs Republican Guard trained as a mortar man. The Mosul police station, called Four West, had received forty to fifty well-targeted rounds in the last few months by this team of men.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Tuesday July 12, 2005, Kirkuk, Tamim, Iraq

Kirkuk Car bomb

A hospital worker cleans up the blood and debris left after doctors fought to save Mahmood Al-Obaidei's life. Everyday, ordinary Iraqi citizens become collateral casualties of the war in Iraq.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Monday July 11, 2005, Erbil, Iraq

A woman shrouded in an Abiya walks through an arch leading out of the Citadel of Erbil and to the modern city streets on July 11, 2004. The once Turkish fort rises above the city as it has been built on top of itself for thousands of years. The old clay brick and mud roof dwellings house some 3,000 residences. The 8,000 year old city was known to house an Ishtar temple in ancient times and was once referred to as Òthe City of the four Gods,Ó making it a known cult center of importance. Residence there now lead a poor to middle class life with cars being a common possession but water supplies last for only a few hours a day.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Saturday April 30, 2005, Denver, Colorado, USA

Marines of India Company Honor Lance Corporal Greg Runs in Colorado

Karissa Marcum, right, and Jane Rund, center, are presented with the awards Greg earned while fighting in Iraq on April 30, 2005. Greg earned the Bronze Star, the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement with a V for Valor, and the Purple Heart. Lance Corporal Greg Rund was killed while storming a house full of fighters in Fallujah, Iraq on Dec. 10, 2004.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Thursday March 3, 2005, Basra, Basra, Iraq

Basra Navy Marsh Arabs

Suade Ammer, stands by a wall decorated with the bloody handprints put there by the children weeks before, when the family was slaughtering a cow to share for the important religious Ashoura holiday on March 3, 2005. Suade and her family have taken up residence in this abandoned building that once was a storage shed for the naval academy along the Shatt al-Arab river. The family once lived in the marshes before they were drained by Saddam Hussein and are now struggling to find their new place in today's Iraq.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Wednesday November 2, 2005, Balad, Diyala , USA

Balad Wounded

A gravely wounded U.S. soldier is loaded into the helicopter for medical evacuation. Only one of the two reported wounded was at the landing zone as one soldier was driven to the nearby hospital. Suffering from two severed legs and an open stomach wound, medics on the ground applied two tourniquets to the wounded soldier on the scene where his vehicle was ambushed by a grenade attack.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Monday August 29, 2005, Balad, Diyala, Iraq

Balad Air Base Wounded Hospital

Flight medics make final adjustments to the medicine that Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Schilling will receive before he is transported by a C-141 out of Balad Air Base, in central Iraq, to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, in Germany. The wounded are carefully monitored and given medication to relax and ease the pain of air transport. The flight nurses are careful to observe patients during the flight as the change in pressure could cause unseen problems in still open wounds.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Monday August 29, 2005, Landstuhl, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Lance Corporal Matthew Schilling

Doctor Major Paul Phillips, left, and the medical staff, of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, prepare to clean and evaluate Marine Lance Corporal Matthew SchillingÕs amputated leg just hours after he arrives from Iraq. At this stage of treatment, doctors are already shaping the amputated stump for optimal use with prosthetic legs. Bone that extends past the flesh must be cut back and the flesh cleansed for best recovery. With the majority of the wounds from Iraq accruing from roadside bombs, such operations are a daily procedure.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Wednesday August 10, 2005, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, uses the Red Phone, a secure phone line from his office deep inside the presidential palace in BaghdadÕs Green Zone. During the day Khalilzad meet with representatives of IraqÕs constitutional committee. He encouraged Shiite members to ease back on wording about the inclusion of Islamic law and encouraged Federalism.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Sunday July 24, 2005, Mosul, Ninewa, Iraq

1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment Mosul

U.S. soldiers, with the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, Bravo Company, question a man charged with being part of a mortar and improvised explosive device (IED) team in the Islah Zeral neighborhood of Mosul. U.S. and Iraqi Army forces raided his home and detained four other men after receiving a tip from Iraqi Army intelligence that the men in the home were part of a skilled mortar and IED making team. The soldiers hoped that the detained men would lead them to their mortars, but they did not. The men were taken into Iraqi Army custody and then later released to U.S. custody. One of the men detained was a Master Sergeant in Saddam HusseinÕs Republican Guard, trained as a mortar man. A Mosul police station, called Four West, had received forty to fifty well-targeted rounds in the last few months by this team of men.

Credit: Max Becherer / Polaris

Max Becherer

Max Becherer is a freelance photojournalist, represented by Polaris Images since 2004, dedicated to covering international news and the Middle East. He is widely published with images appearing on the cover of Time Magazine, the New York Times and a variety of other newspapers. Since working with Polaris, Becherer has covered Africa and the war in Iraq. In 2006, Max was awarded First Place in the main category of People and Events in the 2006 Poland Press Photography Contest, for his images of Iraqi mourners during the funeral of a man killed during the national elections of 2005.

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Becherer was embedded with Marine and Army units to report on local military members for the Arizona Daily Star, a newspaper for which he worked for three years. While working at the Arizona Daily Star, Becherer covered the American Southwest including issues involving the U.S./Mexico border for which he won several awards.

Becherer earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Photojournalism from California's San Jose State University in 2000. He interned at several newspapers, including The Boston Globe, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Concord Monitor. He attended the Eddie Adams workshop in 1999 and for his performance there, won a scholarship from the Los Angeles Times and an assignment from Life Magazine.

Personal web site of Max Becherer