A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa March 15, 2019

Zohra Bensemra’s picture of celebration in the streets has a wonderful triangular composition to it that leads the eye to the very top of the visual pyramid and to the Algerian flag. The eyes, the arms and the hands all push you up past the bright street lights, which don’t distract from the action but add to it.    

People celebrate on the streets after President Bouteflika announced he will not run for a fifth term, in Algiers, Algeria, March 11, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

There is no escaping the open grief of this woman in Tiksa Negeri’s picture as she visits the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines crash where her relative was killed. There is so little left of the bodies at the crash scene and she is so overwrought that - trying to get close to her loved one – she splashes soil from the scene into her face. One of the saddest mourning pictures I have ever seen. Read on here

A relative throws soil on her face as she mourns at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 crash, near the town of Bisoflu, near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 14, 2019.   REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

Even though there is very little detail in Rodi Said’s picture from Baghouz, there is no mistaking a powerful sense of ferocious battle. It’s almost as though your eyes have to get accustomed to the brightness of the fire before you can get a feeling of the scale. Slowly you begin to pick out the size of the buildings and it’s then that you realise the whole landscape, to the far horizon, is ablaze or covered in smoke. 

Fire and plumbs of smoke are seen during fighting in the Islamic State’s final enclave, in the village of Baghouz, Dieir Al Zor, Syria March 11, 2019.   REUTERS/Rodi Said 

Siphiwe Sibeko’s picture of the evening commute to Soweto works on so many different levels. First the wow factor as you look at the relaxed and smiling commuters literally on the front of the train. True, it’s not as packed as trains you see in Bangladesh, but one slip and instant death awaits. Beyond this, the picture has even more to offer: the contrast of the warm and bright colours in the foreground, against the cool blues in the distance, the man on the tracks walking us to the cool horizon past the warm dot of red of the signal light. To the left a small gaggle of children, sitting on the tracks watching as the train goes by. Lastly, but worth a mention, have a think about where Siphiwe is standing to shoot this terrific image.

Commuters hang on the sides of a train as they return from work in Soweto, South Africa March 12, 2019.    REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko 

Temilade Adelaja picture is such a powerful news picture that it sets the pulse racing. Every element of news imagery is there: action, energy and every emotion imaginable on the faces of the rescuers crowding around the child. Best of all, this is a picture about survival. You can see the follow up story here 

Rescue workers help carry a child at the site of a collapsed building containing a school in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, Nigeria March 13, 2019.   REUTERS/ Temilade Adelaja

Unlike Temilade’s picture above from the same news event some pictures defy an instinctive crop because they work in so many different ways. Afolabi Sotunde’s image of a child being rescued is one such image. First, here is the full frame. The figures in yellow and highlights on the right are distracting so you don’t see the action of the girl being helped properly. They need cropping…I think. 

Rescue workers help carry a child at the site of a collapsed building containing a school in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, Nigeria March 13, 2019.   REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

But once you crop them out and leave in the wonderful expressions of the men in the background the image becomes a little square and will not be easy to fit into a standard digital imaged space. To crop the men out will spoil the ambiance around the main action.  

So why not crop to a vertical? But if you keep the child’s foot in bottom left and the powerful face top left and the finger and grey shirt on the right along with the face top right that looks back into the picture, the image ends up a little square again. 

So another crop, this time tight and in a classic horizontal 4x3 shape to really draw the focus on the child’s face. Although the shape is perfect and the key action very strong, the faces of the men around the child look a little passive compared to the men in background in the previous crops. So the answer, on this rare occasion, is to move them all and let other professional picture editors have the choice. Am I passing the decision- making buck or giving customers more choice? Another interesting debate, but not for now. See the full picture file here 

Rescue workers help carry a child at the site of a collapsed building containing a school in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, Nigeria March 13, 2019.   REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

There is no visual ambiguity whatsoever in Khaled Abdullah’s striking picture of a woman recovering from her injuries after a bombing raid in Yemen. A decisive crop was important to protect her identity. We sense her pain, the slightest movement uncomfortable, her arms crossed against her chest to protect herself. The cool tones of the blue and white of her clothing and the sheets contrast with the warm colour of her hands and the darkened skin of her injuries.      

A woman who was injured in air strikes lies in a hospital bed in Sanaa, Yemen, March 12, 2019.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

On some rare occasions it’s a small almost unperceived moment in a busy and chaotic image that tells a story, if you take time to see it. As I have mentioned before I always take the time to look at the faces of those who are dead in our picture file. I feel no matter the circumstances of the death they are owed this from me. When looking at Mohammed Salem’s picture I noticed the hand touching Mussa’s face. It’s not quite clear where this hand is coming from but once you see the tenderness of the touch, the noise of the shouting men, the struggling crowd and the pushing media all fade away. All you can see, feel and hear is this gentle caress.       

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Mussa Mussa, who died of his wounds he sustained at the Israeli-Gaza border fence, during bis funeral in the central Gaza strip, March 12, 2019.   REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa March 8, 2019

I wanted to share Baz Ratner's wonderful cameo portrait in yesterday's initial edit but as the selection was quite large I decided to exclude it. Having slept on this decision I have changed my mind. The colours and the strong shape of her profile had actually haunted my dreams. Not much I can add as the simplistic beauty of this portrait speaks for itself, except I would have loved a slight crop on the left to remove mark in the background. You can see the full story here

Kenyan model Aiuma Nassanyana waits behind the scenes before the fashion show showcasing African fashion and culture during a gala to launch the book 'African Twilight: The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent' at the African Heritage House in Nairobi, Kenya March 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Baz Ratner

It would be wrong for me to include only one image from Rodi Said, who is in Syria near Baghouz waiting for the last Islamic State enclave to fall, so I’ve chosen three. In the first image it’s the catchlight of the warm late sunlight above the shadows that highlights the look on the boy’s face as he looks out from the shelter of the queue of women. No matter how hard you look he is giving none of his thoughts away. Maybe that’s a good thing for us but a bad thing for him as who knows what this child has witnessed. Latest here

A boy looks out from a queue of waiting women near Baghouz, Deir Al Zor Province, Syria, March 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Rodi Said

Not the most beautiful image I have selected but  certainly one of the most subtly poignant. The focus of the image is created by the clever crop of the truck that leads the viewer’s eye straight to the children in the back of the speeding vehicle. Their gaze takes to you the line of people in the mid distance. The captions reveals that the recently freed are now looking across at their former captors,  who are now prisoners themselves.  

Children from the Yazidi community, who were recently freed after being captured by Islamic State fighters, ride on the back of a truck near Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria, March 6, 2019.    REUTERS/Rodi Said

It takes a little for you sort out what is going on in Rodi’s picture as your eye darts from pile to pile of scattered clothing and blankets. You finally notice the grey hood of child sitting looking at the makeshift bed. It’s only then you see the child with the pink hat leaning on their mother. Once in the core of this image you cannot draw away.   

Children sit next to their injured mother near the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province in Syria March 7, 2019.   REUTERS/Rodi Said

Who has not, as child, thrown food up into the air to catch it in your mouth? And sometimes the game is extended to throwing sweets and food for others to catch in their mouth, the simple joy of a “catch” more than a little pleasing. It is this basic sense of joy that draws me to Samar Abo Elouf’s picture from Gaza, captured perfectly in environmental portrait style, hands throwing up nuts, eyes focussed and mouths wide open. To see the full story if girls living in Gaza click here.

Fatma Youssef, 17, a Palestinian high school student and horse rider and her friend catch nuts in their mouths at their school in Gaza City, February 7, 2019. REUTERS/Samar Abo Elouf

A simple portrait beautifully shot by Hayam Adel using the strong window daylight to sidelight his subject and the warm tungsten lighting of the lamp to give the background a warm glow. Crossed curves of light used to their best effect.  You can see the whole story about global maternity leave here.

Nahla Mohamed Abdel Rahman, 37, a professor at faculty of applied arts, hold her three-month-old baby Younis, at their house after her first week back at work, in Cairo, Egypt, February 22, 2019.   REUTERS/Hayam Adel

The composition of Khalid al-Mouslily’s picture zooms you at speed along the muddy and battle-damaged street to the vanishing point on the distant horizon, not a yard of this journey untouched by the conflict. When you return to the foreground of the image you see the three lonely figures walking through this barren cityscape, trying to pull their lives back together. 

Marwa Khalid, 28, walks with her children, Mustafa and Muhaymen, in the old city of Mosul, Iraq March 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Khalid al-Mouslily

Although the march was attended by hundreds of people I like this single act of defiance in Zohra Bensemra’s picture. It’s not clear if this woman is taking pictures of herself within the demonstration or whether she is shooting pictures of the demonstration itself, but she looks determined and powerful even though the perspective of the image dwarfs her against the riot policeman. Her action of shooting pictures with her phone is clearly defined against the clean background, making it the focal point of the image. This clarity of shape contrasts with the confusion of the busy reflections in the riot shield in the foreground.  

A lawyer holds up her mobile phone near a police member as she marches with others to the constitutional council during a protest to denounce an offer by President Bouteflika to run in elections next month but not to serve a full term if re-elected, in Algiers, Algeria March 7, 2019.  REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra  

A regular line of blue helmets and black uniforms cut through a crowd of protesters cutting the image in half, a perfect illustration of the saying “thin blue line” – the separation between order and disorder - in Ramzi Boudina’s picture. I can’t help feeling a sense of unease when looking at it. I am not experienced in crowd control but I would have thought that for effective policing, ideally a police line should not be completely surrounded, no matter how peaceful the crowd?   

Students take part in a protest to denounce an offer by President Bouteflika to run in elections next month but not to serve a full term if re-elected, in Algiers, Algeria March 7, 2019.  REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina  

I am a great fan of detail pictures that tease you and draw you into a story and make you want to know more. Raneen Sawafta’s will be a pull for anyone interested in film; not only because it’s almost a sin for film to be on the floor in the grit and dirt and will send a shudder down the spine of most, but because once you have got over the initial shock of this, you will want to know more about the green ticket. You can find out here

Film strips and a ticket ae seen on the ground in a former cinema in Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank February 24, 2019.    REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta

And really there is no other reason for adding Amir Cohen’s image to the week’s selection than that it’s a moment of simple joy captured in a perfect balance of light and intrigue. When was the last time you did a headstand when taking your dog out for a walk? And imagine the odds of doing that and having it captured by an international photographer of Amir’s calibre.

A woman does a headstand along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Ashkelon, Israel March 2, 2019.    REUTERS/Amir Cohen

And lastly, our talented and cherished colleague Yannis Behrakis died last week after a year-long battle with cancer. What he has left is an amazing legacy of powerful news pictures that can be seen here    

A Syrian refugee kisses his daughter as he walks through a rainstorm towards Greece’s border with Macedonia near the Greek village of Idomeni September 10, 2015.   REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis