Close up: Photographer Ben Curtis

Ben Curtis is The Associated Press' East Africa photographer based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Born in Oxford, England he graduated in law from the University of Sheffield and worked as a staff photographer for the UK Press Association in both London and Scotland, before joining the AP in 2003. 

Prior to his current position, he occupied the roles of photo editor and chief photographer for the Middle East based in Cairo, Egypt and West Africa photographer based in Dakar, Senegal.

He has covered assignments across the Middle East and Africa including conflicts in Libya, South Sudan, Liberia, Egypt, Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast and Kenya, as well as two Olympic Games.

His awards include World Press Photo 1st prize for spot news, Pictures of the Year International, Bayeux Award for War Correspondents, National Press Photographers Association, and the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar.

Below is a selection of Curtis' outstanding imagery.

---

Gift Mapuka, who described himself as a "Global Mission Pioneer" from the Seventh-day Adventist Church, preaches on his own about Jesus and Nelson Mandela, in front of a wall of get-well messages and flowers left by well-wishers, outside the entrance to the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where former South African President Nelson Mandela is being treated in Pretoria, South Africa Friday, July 5, 2013. Mandela, who was hospitalized on June 8, remains in critical but stable condition according to the office of President Jacob Zuma, who visited the anti-apartheid leader on Thursday, and the president's office also said doctors denied reports that 94-year-old Mandela is in a "vegetative state." (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A mother, right, walks to have a family photograph taken with her son, center, seen reflected in a portrait of Nelson Mandela, outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where former South African President Nelson Mandela is being treated in Pretoria, South Africa Monday, July 8, 2013. There was no official update Monday morning on the health of the 94-year-old former president and anti-apartheid leader, who was admitted June 8 to the hospital for a recurring lung infection. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A displaced child struggles to carry a container of drinking water obtained from a truck across a slippery muddy patch of ground at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. Some 25,000 people live in two hastily arranged camps for the internally displaced in Juba and nearly 40,000 are in camps elsewhere in the country, two weeks after violence broke out in the capital and a spiralling series of ethnically-based attacks coursed through the nation, killing at least 1,000 people. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Villagers spray the groom, Mohammed Zamanpour, 25, and his bride Manijeh, 16, with foam confetti at a Bakhtiari nomad wedding in the mountain village of Abid near the town of Masjid-e-Soleiman in southwestern Iran, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. Migration has been a way of life for nomads such as the Bakhtiari in Iran for thousands of years but the phenomenon is slowly disappearing as government encroaches and the attractions of urban life draw some away from the nomadic lifestyle. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A displaced boy mimics the photographer taking a picture of him, using a fake plastic jewel, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013. Some 25,000 people live in two hastily arranged camps for the internally displaced in Juba and nearly 40,000 are in camps elsewhere in the country, two weeks after violence broke out in the capital and a spiralling series of ethnically-based attacks coursed through the nation, killing at least 1,000 people. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Monday, Jan. 19, 2009, Fatma Zidane El-Banneh, 8, and her mother Azza are pictured after returning from hospital to the Beit Lahiya Elementary Co-educational school, where Azhar said Fatma was burned by white phosphorus, which could not be independently verified, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza strip. A U.N. official said two Palestinian boys were killed after a shelling attack struck the U.N. school packed with refugees fleeing the fighting. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Palestinians offer traditional Muslim Friday prayers amidst the rubble of a destroyed mosque, where only the minaret still stands, in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza strip, Friday, Jan. 23, 2009. Gaza residents headed for Friday communal prayers and Israeli naval guns were largely silent as grief and shock began to mix with a palpable sense of relief in the coastal strip pounded by weeks of Israeli airstrikes and ground assaults. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A supporter of main challenger and reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, not wanting to be photographed, hides her face using a poster of him as she waits in the stands at an election rally at the Heidarnia stadium in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A wounded anti-government protester holds up his bloodied hand as he is carried by others back from clashes with pro-government supporters near the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011. Anti-government protesters and regime supporters clashed in a second day of rock-throwing battles, while gangs of thugs supporting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attacked reporters, foreigners and rights workers as the army rounded up foreign journalists and new looting and arson were reported. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A man makes bubbles with two electric bubble-blowers at a day-long gathering of pro-Gadhafi soldiers and supporters, at dusk in Green Square, Tripoli, Libya Sunday, March 6, 2011. After unusually heavy gunfire erupted before dawn, thousands of Gadhafi's supporters poured into Tripoli's central square for a rally claimed by them to be a celebration of the regime taking back the cities of Ras Lanouf and Misrata - though both places remained in rebel hands late Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Libyan rebel fighters pray in the desert on hearing claims from other rebels that an airstrike further up the road towards Brega had hit rebel forces killing at least two and injuring more than a dozen, at the west gate of Ajdabiya, Libya Thursday, April 7, 2011. Rebel fighters claimed NATO airstrikes blasted their forces Thursday in another apparent mistake that sharply escalated anger about coordination with the military alliance in efforts to cripple pro-Gadhafi forces. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Two-month-old orphaned baby elephant Ajabu is given a dust-bath in the red earth after being fed milk from a bottle by a keeper, as she is too young to do it herself, at an event to commemorate World Environment Day at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, June 5, 2013. Trust founder Daphne Sheldrick said at the event, which was attended by U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec, that they are seeing an upsurge in orphaned elephants because of the poaching crisis occurring across Africa. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A young Rwandan girl sits amongst hundreds gathered at a ceremony to await the arrival of a small flame of remembrance, symbolic fire traveling the country, and hear genocide memories in the capital Kigali, Rwanda Saturday, April 5, 2014. The country will commemorate on April 7, 2014 the 20th anniversary of the genocide when ethnic Hutu extremists killed neighbors, friends and family during a three-month rampage of violence aimed at ethnic Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, leaving a death toll that Rwanda puts at 1,000,050. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Rwandan children listen and pray during a Sunday morning service at the Saint-Famille Catholic church, the scene of many killings during the 1994 genocide, in the capital Kigali, Rwanda Sunday, April 6, 2014. Rwanda will commemorate on Monday the 20-year anniversary of the genocide when ethnic Hutu extremists killed neighbors, friends and family during a three-month rampage of violence aimed at ethnic Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, leaving a death toll that Rwanda puts at 1,000,050. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

One of the few to have a mosquito net, a displaced family who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat across the White Nile, sit under it after waking up in the morning in the town of Awerial, South Sudan Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014. The international Red Cross said Wednesday that the road from Bor to the nearby Awerial area "is lined with thousands of people" waiting for boats so they could cross the Nile River and that the gathering of displaced is "is the largest single identified concentration of displaced people in the country so far". (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Displaced people who fled the recent fighting between government and rebel forces in Bor by boat across the White Nile, prepare to sleep in the open at night in the town of Awerial, South Sudan Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. The international Red Cross said Wednesday that the road from Bor to the nearby Awerial area "is lined with thousands of people" waiting for boats so they could cross the Nile River and that the gathering of displaced is "is the largest single identified concentration of displaced people in the country so far". (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The skulls and bones of some of those who were slaughtered as they sought refuge inside the church, are laid out on shelves in an underground vault as a memorial to the thousands who were killed in and around the Catholic church during the 1994 genocide in Nyamata, Rwanda, Friday, April 4, 2014. The country will commemorate on April 7, 2014 the 20th anniversary of the genocide when ethnic Hutu extremists killed neighbors, friends and family during a three-month rampage of violence aimed at ethnic Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, leaving a death toll that Rwanda puts at 1,000,050. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Bizimana Emmanuel, who was born two years before the genocide, is consoled by an unidentified woman while attending a public ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, at Amahoro stadium in Kigali, Rwanda Monday, April 7, 2014. Sorrowful wails and uncontrollable sobs resounded Monday as thousands of Rwandans packed the country's main sports stadium to mark the 20th anniversary of the beginning of a devastating 100-day genocide. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Emmanuel Ndayisaba, left, who during the 1994 Rwandan genocide cut off with a machete the hand of Alice Mukarurinda, right, in the swamp where she was hiding and killed her baby girl, but who are now friends, recount their experiences of the genocide at Alice's house in Nyamata, Rwanda. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A mourner wearing a banner as a skirt showing the face of South African President Jacob Zuma observes the scene from a hilltop overlooking the burial site of Nelson Mandela in Qunu, South Africa Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012, a young schoolboy makes handstands during break in the yard of the Hot Courses Primary School, in the village of Nyumbani which caters to children who lost their parents to HIV, and grandparents who lost their children to HIV, with the bookend generations taking care of one another, in Kenya. Saturday, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day, and UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden, with eastern and southern Africa the hardest-hit regions. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Excited supporters cheer for South African President Jacob Zuma at a final African National Congress (ANC) election rally in the Soweto township of Johannesburg, South Africa Sunday May 4, 2014. South African political parties held final campaign rallies Sunday ahead of elections on Wednesday, May 7, 2014 that are likely to see the ruling ANC return to power with a smaller majority due to voters disaffected by corruption in government and economic inequality. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A group of Maasai women arrive to support the young warriors from their village at the annual Maasai Olympics in the Sidai Oleng Wildlife Sanctuary near to Mt Kilimanjaro, in southern Kenya Saturday, Dec. 13, 2014. Maasai men and women from the Amboseli and Tsavo region compete for medals and prizes in the event which aims for a sports competition of Maasai skills such as running, jumping, and throwing, to replace lion-hunting as the traditional warrior activity. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Mexican diver Daniel Islas Arroyo trains at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 22, 2012, in London. The opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games are scheduled for Friday, July 27. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A Chadian soldier wearing reflective sunglasses observes the convoy ahead of him, as Chadian soldiers who are fighting in support of Central African Republic president Francois Bozize, ride on the road leading to Damara, about 70km (44 miles) north of the capital Bangui, Central African Republic Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. More than 30 truckloads of troops from Chad line the two-lane highway just outside of Damara, supporting government forces who want to block a new rebel coalition from reaching the capital, and Gen. Jean Felix Akaga, who heads a 10-nation regional force, says the town is a "red line that the rebels cannot cross" or his forces will attack. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A female protester wears a mask as she joins others to carry mock coffins and red-painted crosses, symbolizing the blood of the 28 non-Muslims singled out and killed in the recent attack on a bus in Mandera by Somali militant group al-Shabab, outside government offices in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014. Demonstrators carried mock coffins and red-painted crosses in Nairobi on Tuesday, a vivid protest demanding the government provide more effective security for ordinary Kenyans and a memorial for the hundreds of Kenyans killed in recent terror attacks, as pressure builds on the government to halt a steady onslaught of gunfire and grenade assaults. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A Kenyan man sits in the cab of a destroyed truck used as a makeshift roadblock while a tyre burns on the roof, as he and others enforce the roadblock in Kisumu, Kenya, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008. The town of Kisumu is now almost completely ethnically cleansed of Kikuyus, and mobs armed with makeshift weapons erect burning roadblocks and search for the few Kikuyu targets remaining. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A Palestinian woman from the Suboh family weeps as she is comforted after learning the body of a releative was dug out of the rubble of a house destroyed in recent days in Israeli bombardment in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza strip, Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. The bodies of four Hamas fighters from the same family, Bassem, Nashad, Sharif, and Rizek Suboh, were pulled from the rubble in the are that was hit hard in an Israeli miltary offensive. Israel hopes to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States on Tuesday, Israeli officials (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

---

See more photos from Ben Curtis 

Follow AP photographers on Twitter

Written content on this site is not created by the editorial department of AP, unless otherwise noted.