Photos: Emilio Morenatti

I am not sure how I missed these when they were first published on the Denver Post site, glad I went wandering around and found such a wonderful set of unusual and atmospheric images, Emilio Morenatti is a photographer I will follow in the future

Emilio Morenatti began his career in Spain covering both national and international events. In 2003, he traveled to Afghanistan as a correspondent to cover the war and the fall of the Taliban for the Associated Press. He was sent to the Middle East to cover the conflict for the AP in 2005. In 2006, while covering the conflict in Gaza City, he was kidnapped by gunmen before being released unharmed a day later. He is currently based in Pakistan and covers Central Asia for the Associated Press. He was named 2008 Newspaper Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International. Below is a collection of his images from 2008 and so far in 2009.

A Pakistani Kushti wrestler washes himself after a training at the Champion Khalu Behalwan wrestling club in the Old City of Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2008. Kushti, an Indo-Pakistani form of wrestling, is several thousand years old and is a national sport in Pakistan. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Hamas security officers stand guard as thousands of Hamas supporters gather during a rally in Gaza city, Saturday, Dec. 15, 2007. Hamas marked the 20th anniversary of its founding with a huge rally Saturday, sending a message of strength and defiance even as it is struggling to keep Gaza afloat. (AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti)

An Afghan man carries a bundle of balloons as he walks along a street on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, June 27, 2008.   (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Pakistani men pray at Waseer Khan mosque during Friday prayers in Lahore Pakistan, Friday, March 13, 2009. Pakistani officials appealed Friday to the opposition to join talks aimed at resolving the country’s political crisis, even as police stepped up a crackdown on activists trying to reach the capital for a planned anti-government protest. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A Pakistani vendor hangs a poster of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto at his shop in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday Feb. 13, 2008. Pakistan’s ruling party expressed confidence Wednesday that it will form a new government after next week’s parliamentary elections, despite surveys pointing to a strong victory by President Pervez Musharraf’s opponents. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Pakistani court scribe Ruhman Khan, uses an old machine to type forms at his lawyer’s office in the Civil Court of Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, March 18, 2009. For two years many lawyers regularly clashed with police, staged hunger strikes and walked off their job to pressure the country’s rulers to reinstate the deposed Supreme Court chief justice fired by Musharraf in 2007. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s announcement that Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry would resume his duties as the chief justice on March 22 headed off a political crisis that threatened to destabilize a government facing a teetering economy and rising Islamist violence. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

a Pakistani lawyer runs away from tear gas fired by police officers outside the residence of the country’s deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mahmood Chaudhry during a protest in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti/FILE)

There are about 50 images in this gallery and all are worth your time

Portraits: Pakistani victims of Taliban violence

Pakistan based Associated Press photographer Muhammed Muheisen recently created a portrait series of victims of Taliban violence. To many of these men and women, the idea of negotiating with people responsible for so much human pain is abhorrent. Their voices, however, are rarely heard in Pakistan, a country where people have long been conflicted about whether the Taliban are enemies bent on destroying the state or fellow Muslims who should be welcomed back into the fold after years of fighting. Denver Post

In this Tuesday, July. 31, 2012, photo, Pakistani newspaper seller Mohammed Rafiq, 20, who was injured in a bomb blast on June, 29, 2008, in Swat valley, poses for a picture in Islamabad, Pakistan. To many victims of Taliban violence, the idea of negotiating with people responsible for so much human pain is abhorrent. Their voices, however, are rarely heard in Pakistan, a country where people have long been conflicted about whether the Taliban are enemies bent on destroying the state or fellow Muslims who should be welcomed back into the fold after years of fighting.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Saturday, July 7, 2102, photo, Pakistani daily worker Mufeed Ali, 48, who was injured by a remote control bomb at Lahore train station, on April, 24, 2012, reacts while posing for a picture in Lahore, Pakistan. Hazratullah Khan’s right leg was amputated below the knee after he survived a car bombing as he was on his way home from school. His response when asked whether peace talks should be held with the Taliban leaders who ordered attacks like the ones that maimed him is simple: Hang them alive. Slice their flesh off their bodies and cut them into pieces. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

In this Monday, July 30, 2012, photo, Pakistani politician Israr Shah, 56, who was injured in a bomb blast in Islamabad on July, 17, 2007, poses for a picture, in Islamabad, Pakistan. To many victims of Taliban violence, the idea of negotiating with people responsible for so much human pain is abhorrent. Their voices, however, are rarely heard in Pakistan, a country where people have long been conflicted about whether the Taliban are enemies bent on destroying the state or fellow Muslims who should be welcomed back into the fold after years of fighting.(AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

See the rest of these powerful portraits here