The technique of before and after images published
as a combination picture has been used extensively to help illustrate the impact
the lockdown has had on events and family life. Ammar Awad’s image is partially
striking not only as normally the street would be so crowded as it’s from such
an important date on the Christian calendar but also because he has taken such
care to get the ‘after’ image in the exactly the same position as the ‘before’
image, not easy to do. Read on here.
A boy plays in the water at a beach during
a lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Algiers,
Algeria April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi
Boudina
It’s the defiant gesture in the flick of
the hand that is the strength of Luc Gnago’s image: you get the sense the
protester is just not concerned what the security forces will do, he is
passionate about his cause. In terms of the image itself the temptation might
be to crop it much tighter to accentuate the hand, keeping the flames, smoke
and shack in the background and bringing up the bottom. But then you’d lose the detail of the
demonstrator with his face painted white, whose almost casual stance seems to
bring even more menace to the picture. Read on here
If it were not for the technology needed to
capture and view Ammar Awad’s timeless picture there is nothing in it that
could not have been seen 1,000 years ago. The covered figure in grey cloth
blends into the muted colours of the age-worn pillars, doors and stone steps to
give us what could be a glance into the past.
A dynamic bisection of her picture by Hanaa
Habib makes us wonder what is going on in this yellow brown detail-less
brutalist image. Any other composition and you might just move on uninterested.
It’s only the door frames that give you a sense of scale and then finally, as
you peer through the gloom of the sandstorm with gritted teeth, you see a
figure on the balcony. Like the woman on her balcony you can now probably also
almost taste the sand in the air.
Who can resist the horizontal
compositional classic thirds, a splash of red set against blues and greys, a
pony tail caught perfectly so it cuts across the horizon and the eye to eye
contact in Muhammed Hamed’s picture. Not me, for sure. Enjoy. Read on here.
Everything about Anne Mimault’s picture
says hard work and struggle to me. Framed in parched setting a woman struggles
with cart, the position of her feet giving us the visual clue to the weight of
the water in the drum. It’s only when we read the caption that we know that the
taps in the picture are not working, leaving us to imagine the distance this
woman has to struggle with her load. Read on here.
The calm before the storm? Baz Ratner’s
perfectly mirrored image of a field hospital certainly feels like it, and I get
the sense I am holding my breath when I look at it. I think the reason this
picture works so well and gives us this feeling is the lone figure sitting at
her desk, her head tilted to the side, with her face mask the only detail we
can really see. Without this person the image would not work with such strength.
A combination picture shows worshippers
carrying crosses during a Good Friday Procession along the Via Dolorosa in
Jerusalem’s Old City April 6, 2018 (top) and the same spot on Good Friday April
10, 2020, as stringent steps are taken to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
REUTERS/Ammar Awad
In Ramzi Boudina’s picture the tranquility
of the calm blue sea is broken by a single person splashing into it. It feels
to me as though the silence of the lockdown is broken by the visual noise of
this action. I also like the diamond shape of the boy’s body that is central in
the compositional oval created by the curve of the beach in the distance and
the rocks and vignette shadow in the foreground.
Residents protest after ransacking a half
built makeshift hospital for the treatment of those suffering from coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) as the say its location is too close to a local community in
Yopougon, Abidjan, Ivory Coast April 6, 2020.
REUTERS/Luc Gnago
Abubaker Lubowa has
shot a very busy picture. No matter where you look or how deep into the image
you look, soldiers can be seen working hard at their task. What is especially
terrific is the timing in Luc’s picture; nothing in the foreground cuts off the
shapes and activity in the mid distance or background. A final nice touch is
the giant hand in the ground seems to be reaching out to catch a tiny white
sack of food that is being thrown off the truck.
Members of Local Defence Unit (LDU) offload
relief food during a distribution exercise to civilians affected by the
lockdown, as part of the measures to prevent the potential spread of the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kampala, Uganda, April 4, 2020. REUTERS Abubaker Lubowa
A wonderfully thoughtful picture built up
of clever shapes, strong lines, and bright colours by Francis Kokoroko, which captures
a girl who seems quiet in her own pensive thoughts. It takes a little time to
work out the abstract shape occupies a third of the image in the foreground,
but once you recognize it is a face in the mask it all makes sense. The yellow
counters the red to balance the picture, that then allows your eye to settle on
the girl’s face.
A girl sits after receiving goods from
volunteers during food and water distribution to the underprivileged and
homeless as Ghana enforces partial lockdown in Accra and Kumasi in an effort to
slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Accra, Ghana April 4,
2020. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko
It was too hard not to include a second
image from Francis Kokoroko from the same place. He uses a similar technique of
filling his image with abstract out of focus shapes to drive the focus of his
picture directly to the fearful eyes of the man covering his face with his
shirt as he waits for aid.
A man covers his face as he waits to
receive goods from volunteers during food and water distribution to the
underprivileged and homeless as Ghana enforces partial lockdown in Accra and
Kumasi in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in
Accra, Ghana April 4, 2020.
REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko
A man stands in front of the closed doors
of the church of the Holy Sepulchre on Good Friday amid the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) outbreak, in Jerusalem’s old city April 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A woman watches a stand storm from her
balcony in Cairo, Egypt April 5, 2020.
REUTERS/Hanaa Habib
Hadeel Alami, A Jordanian judo
practitioner, trains with a wooden ladder at home during the curfew imposed by
the government amid concerns of the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in
Amman Jordan, April 9, 2020. REUTERS/ Muhammed
Hamed
A woman pushes a
barrel filled with water brought by her from a privately-owned water tower as
she passes broken public water taps, amid an outbreak of coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) in Taabtenga district of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso April 3, 2020. REUTERS/Anne Mimault
A medical staff member waits at the yet to
be sued field hospital to treat the expected large number of patients due to
the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Aga Khan University
Hospital in Kenya, Nairobi, April 9, 2020.
REUTERS/Baz Ratner
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