A belated happy New Year
to all. It might have gone unnoticed that in UAE Hamad I Mohammed photographed
what appears to be an alien landing. Well, that is what it looks like to me or
maybe it’s a sneak preview of Blade Runner 3. A beam of light shimmers from the
Burj Khalifa as if the occupants of an alien craft are searching for something or
someone in the grey-brown tower blocks. You can see the best of Reuters 2018 here
The Buri Khalifa us lit up during new Year
celebrations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, January 1, 2019. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
The composition of Mohamed Nureldin
Abdallah’s picture is ‘in your face’ very much as his lens was in the face of
the security guard to produce this striking picture. The blue of the sky
creates a clean backdrop for the strong shapes and lines to cut across. Am I worried
the face is not perfectly cut in half or that the cane extends beyond the edge
of the frame? Not at all, as this makes the image bleed wider than its borders,
giving it a ‘big screen’ feel.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir waves to
his supporters during a rally at the Green Square in Khartoum, Sudan January 9,
2019. REUTERS/Mohamed
Nureldin Abdullah
Perfect timing as the ashes leave the
shovel in front of the rising sun gives a powerful left-to-right compositional
flow to Feisal Omars’s picture. The figures on the left in the background help
to echo the wider V shape that makes up the dark foreground. The bare branches
of the tree cut through the haze of rising smoke and the handle of the shovel
adds to this compositional echo.
A trader uses a shovel as he attempts to
recover his merchandise within the smoldering remains of clothing stalls after
an overnight fire at the Bakara market in Mogadishu, Somalia January 11,
2019. REUTERS/Fesial Omar
A strange moment captured by Olivia Acland
as people react to election news in DRC. Your eye goes immediately to the blue
cross and then quickly to the figure on the right, hand on head, mouth open and
eyes closed with tears, his colleagues closing in to console him as they look
at a picture of their leader. But look deeper into the picture. A woman is smiling
and posing as she seems to be shooting a selfie of herself in front of election
banners.
Supporters of Felix Tshisekedi, leader of
the Congolese main opposition the Union for Democracy and Social Progress
(UDPS) react at the party HQ in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo January
10, 2019. REUTERS/Olivia Acland
I’ve broken my own rule and added a picture
with no watermark (so no stealing please), the reason being that it completely
destroys the key focal point of Philimon Bulawayo’s picture - the upward look
of the man. Confusing action of what appears to be people jumping up and down is
exaggerated by the left-hand-down tilt of the picture and countered by the
upwards look of the salesman.
A giant wave of people swirls around Fayulu
in Baz Ratner’s picture. It’s as if the arms of his supporters are spinning the
shape and flow of the image around and around so you are drawn into the picture
like a whirlpool. What I admire too is that I know exactly how much energy and
hard work it would have taken for Baz to get into this position through the
crowds of supporters. More on the election here
Martin Fayulu, runner up in Democratic
Republic of Congo’s presidential election waves to his supporters as he arrives
to a political rally in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, January 11,
2019. REUTERS/.Baz Ratner
‘Shit Happens’ it most certainly does and I
am drawn uncomfortably to Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s powerful picture. On one hand
I cannot help but admire the perfect visual combination of the wording on the
man’s shirt and the injured boy. But I am also aware that the boy is suffering
greatly and his injury will probably blind him in one eye. I would much rather
that this image did not exist and the boy had his sight. But he was injured, we
report the news as it happens, and ‘shit happens’. we are following up to see what has happened to this boy.
A wounded Palestinian boy is evacuated
during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza strip
January 11, 2019.
REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
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