Hamad Darwish

Hamad Darwish is a Kuwaiti medical imaging physicist and photographer. He is best known for taking two wallpapers that were used in Windows Vista: img18 and img21, while an extra wallpaper named img37 was included in the downloadable Ultimate Extras pack.

Involvement in Windows Vista
In 2005, Microsoft's Jenny Lam was impressed by his photography on Flickr, leading her team to anonymously contact him about selling photos. After saying yes, he later recived an offer from MSX Design Group to take photos to be used as wallpapers for Windows Vista. During late 2005 to early 2006 he was sent on a photo shoot in Oregon, USA, capturing roughly 6000 shots. He had to pick 15 of his best, while Microsoft picked only 2 of those to be used in Vista. Microsoft paid him a flat fee for those, and own the rights to them.

Despite the quality of his photos, he had only been using a camera for two years prior to being contacted by Microsoft, while his main profession is a medical imaging physicist. He grew up watching his father take photos.