A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, July 17, 2020

There is something childishly wonderful about watching people get soaked but not as wonderful as intentionally getting soaked yourself. I dare you not to smile at Mike Hutchings’ pictures. The sea foam looks almost like drifting snow but Mike has left a sliver of background at the top of the frame so we get a sense of the power and scale of the wave crashing in.  

People are drenched by sea spray thrown up by huge swells as a cold front moves in over Cape Town, South Africa, July 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings 

I could not resist adding a second frame from the same scene as I love the way the wave is backlit so it looks like an alien reaching out to consume a hapless human. Move over Ridley Scott and James Cameron, there’s a new boy in town. 

People watch spray thrown up by huge swells as a cold front moves in over Cape Town, South Africa, July 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings 

A captured moment by Mohamed Abd El Ghany as a young woman adjusts her veil in a mirror, or is she looking at herself? It’s a shy look with a catch light in her eye that draws us to that glance as her hands gently adjust the garment. Once you ease away from that look you are enveloped in the richness and depth of the gold, blue, red and green colours all warmed up under artificial lighting.    

Sudanese refugee, Hamida Abdallah, fixes her veil in front of a mirror at her apartment in Ain Shams district, amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19, in Cairo, Egypt, July 7, 2020. Picture taken July 7, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany 

Ammar Awad’s picture is crammed full of faces, hands and reds and is more than a little claustrophobic to look at. Pirates, clowns, gloves and masks all fill the space, vying for attention, and the longer you look the hotter the temperature seems to get in this busy, crowded picture.  

Israelis protest against the government's response to the financial fallout of the coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) crisis at Rabin square in Tel Aviv, Israel July 11, 2020. REUTERS/Ammar Awad 

With an initial glance, Baz Ratner has produced a semi-formal environmental portrait of proud, traditionally dressed people looking directly at us through the lens, set against a clean background. But look again, peering around a corner is the smiling face of another, watching the scene unfold, breaking the formality of the moment with an almost cheeky glance. And look even deeper, a backward glance of a strikingly dressed passerby also catches our eye. Read on here.  

A family from the Turkana tribe pose for a picture in the village of Lorengippi near the town of Lodwar, Turkana county, Kenya July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Baz Ratner 

 A very nicely seen picture by Temilade Adelaja as we get an insight into the records department through the open doorway. Soft light and warm colours leave us with the feeling that this is a pleasant place to work. Maybe it’s not the light and colours that leave us with that impression but a sense of a bygone age, no computer on the desk, calm worker with pen on paper, neatly stacked files on the bookshelf at the rear and the sign above the door that states very clearly that this is the RECORD DEPARTMENT. Read on here. 

A woman wearing a protective mask works at the record department of the Primary Healthcare Centre, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Lagos, Nigeria May 7, 2020. REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja 

 Hang on, something’s missing in Mike Hutchings’ picture. The shoulders look right and the hands are well placed to support the weight of the head. The pattern of the stonework replaces the eyes and the curve of the arch replaces the imaginary top line of the head as the mind’s eye struggles to recreate what is missing: the head of the statue. Read on here. 

A damaged bust of Cecil John Rhodes, a controversial figure in the history of South Africa, is seen after the statue had been vandalised and had the head removed in Cape Town, South Africa, July 14, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings 

 Essam Al-Sudani has produced one of the most moving and sad set of images I have seen for quite some time: a child cancer ward impacted by coronavirus disease COVID-19. Many of the images appear without hope at all as parents sit with gravely ill children. This single image really jumped out at me as there is no escaping the faraway look in this mother’s eye as she looks out of the window. We can only imagine what she is thinking, her thoughts uninterrupted by her child, who is bound tightly in swaddling and silent. Read on here. 

An Iraqi woman wearing a protective mask carries her baby, who is suffering from cancer, at the Children's Hospital for Cancer Diseases, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Basra, Iraq July 9, 2020.  REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani  

Raneen Sawafta shoots wide and exposes for the highlights so all the shadows fall into darkness, leaving us with the masked face and hand of the dancer surrounded by solid black, with just the tiniest hint of torso. Even the mask doesn’t detract too much from the intensity seen in her face, a feeling created by the downcast eyes.  

A Palestinian girl wearing a mask rehearses for a performance at the Freedom Theatre amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis in Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank July 16, 2020. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta  

   

A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, March 13, 2020

I have a soft spot for donkeys (not sure why) and an even softer spot for quirky pictures, so Raneen Sawafta’s is an easy pick. At first glance you get as much information is as possible from this image. No matter how long you look, it's still a man is following a donkey down a stairwell. To find out why you need a caption, to find out even more you will need to read here.

A Palestinian worker uses a donkey to transport gravel as it walks down stairs of an under-construction building in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, match 5, 2020.   REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta

Maggie Andersen’s picture can best be described as compositionally ‘very busy’. Your eye darts around, green shoes and shorts, yellow container, shoes and pillar, blue dress, white bag full of things, red fruit for sale in a doorway, people crowded in from the foreground to the very rear of the image and, of course, the white sink and container in the foreground. Even more interesting when you realise this is a picture to illustrate how Rwanda is trying to stop the spread of coronavirus. Read on here.

A man washes his hands at a public washing station before boarding a bus as a cautionary measure against the spread of the coronavirus at Nyabugogo Bus Park in Kigali, Rwanda March 11, 2020.   REUTERS/Maggie Andersen 

Ammar Awad has given us a glimpse into the world of small boys experimenting with things grown up. The moment caught could be that first ghastly puff of a cigarette. Under the watchful gaze of a friend, you can’t let yourself down, no coughing, no saying how horrid it tastes, and the friend knows that he must do the same and not lose face either. A wonderful affectionate moment. 

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish children smoke as they are dressed up in costumes during celebrations marking the Jewish holiday of Purim in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighbourhood March 11, 2020.   REUTERS/Ammar Awad

It takes a little while to work out what is going on in Mohamed Abd El Ghany’s muddy grey/brown picture until the buildings in the centre foreground snap into focus. The dark band top right of the image then makes sense as a road and the sheer size of the urban growth, with thousands living so close to each other, is realised. No colour and no city ‘lungs’ of green space to ease your feeling of claustrophobia  

A view from an aircraft window shows buildings in an area of dense population in Cairo Egypt March 10, 2020.    REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Mohamed Torokman’s picture is almost 100% non-figurative, except for the hand and the gas canister. Both are relatively tiny in the frame, but the eye just zooms in. I love the open space that the canister is hurled into, the clean blue sky helping to give the image clarity and a strong right to left flow.

A Palestinian demonstrator hurls a tear gas canister back that was fired by Israeli forces during a protest against Israeli settlements, near the town of Beita in the Israeli-occupied west bank, March 11, 2020.   REUTERS/Mohamed Torokman

Tiksa Negeri’s picture is just so sad. A year after the tragic accident of flight ET302, a lone figure trying to get as close to the earth as they can beside the stark fence that is keeping them away from the crash site. The crash site is flat and barren land and I just can’t get the feeling from my head that the skies are completely empty and they should not be. Read on here.

A mourner sleeps next to the fence of the crash site during a memorial service for the victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 Boeing 737 Max plane crash near Bishoftu, Ethiopia, march 8, 2020.   REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

It’s the uniform shape and colour that makes Alaa al-Marjani’s picture so appealing. This image was cropped from a wider picture. I like the context of the wider image but love the shapes of the tight crop. Which do you prefer?  

Shi’ite Muslim women wear protective face masks at Imam Ali Shrine, following an outbreak of coronavirus, in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq March 11, 2020.   REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani 

Shi’ite Muslim women wear protective face masks at Imam Ali Shrine, following an outbreak of coronavirus, in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq March 11, 2020.   REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani 

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa May 24, 2019

Two weeks to go before the Women’s World Cup France 2019 kicks off. Zohra Bensemra’s picture smacks you right in the face as the ball thunders at you, making you want to duck. Once you realise you are not going to be hit you notice that the ball looks like a giant head, the player’s body perfectly positioned so the illusion appears real. Once your mind’s eye has finished playing jokes with you, you can enjoy the warm tones of the image, the bright colours, and the fact that football is being enjoyed even though the pitch quality is not as good as it might be. But that just doesn’t matter. You can enjoy the rest of Zohra’s picture story here on the Wider Image.

Gaelle Dule Asheri, 17, a soccer player, who is amongst the first wave of girls being trained by professional coaches at the rails Foot Academy, plays football with her friends outside her house in Yaounde, Cameroon, May 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s picture caught my eye and I’ve thought mmm that’s nice and then moved on. I’ve then been drawn back to it again, but can’t quite put my finger on why. Maybe it’s the harsh warm light that gives the colours their richness, or the strong shadows that define the features of the man who looks you in the eye. Or maybe it’s just the strong zigzag composition that draws you through the fruit market, in and out of the shadows and highlights.

Palestinian shoppers walk in a market in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip may 21, 2019.  REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

At first glance, Khalil Ashawi’s picture is one of gentle tranquility; a child with a beautiful shock of blond hair highlighted by the rich blue in the foreground sleeps peacefully. This peace is then disturbed as you notice dozens of flies and mosquitoes around the child’s nose and mouth. The blue that initially added a cool calm colour turns out to be a ragged tent in a temporary refugee camp. Read on here. 

A displaced Syrian child sleeps on a mat laid out on the floor in an olive grove in the town of Atmeh, Idlib Province, Syria May 19, 2019.   REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Viewers of Mohamed Abd El Ghany’s wonderful picture would go completely unnoticed as people busily get on with the well-deserved business of breaking their fast. All hands, eyes and mouths are focused on eating and drinking. I can’t imagine much talking going on even though the whole community of friends, family and neighbours have all come together. That no doubt will come later when stomachs are full and thirsts quenched.   

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo’s Mataria district gather to eat Iftar, the meal to end their fast at sunset, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo Egypt, May 20, 2019.   REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

I can’t help thinking of the painter Lowry when looking at Anne Mimault’s well- balanced and nicely timed picture. The figures occupy their own individual space against the backdrop of the flat walls of the church, which lead you into the picture, a visual movement aided by the angle of the bent arms on the left of the frame. Take the time to enjoy the shapes and space in the picture and then read on here about the horrors these people have faced. Read on here.

Protestants, some of whom fled Dablo and its surroundings leave a church after a service in the city of Kaya, Burkina Faso, May 16, 2019.    REUTERS/Anne Mimault

Bleached of nearly all colour, Sumaya Hisham’s strong political portrait looks like a still from a film noir. The empty space either side of the cameo profile is just begging for text to be laid out on the page. If I were to seek perfection, I’d like the lips not to be slightly clipped by a dark shape in the foreground. But the perfect often eludes us, so I am more than happy with this.   

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks to the media after parliament formally elected him as State President in Cape Town South Africa, May 22, 2019.    REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

Zohra Bensemra’s picture is a collection of well-composed triangles in a landscape that is hard to understand. Where and what is this place? Why are the colours so strange? What is this person doing? No pun intended, but the icing on the cake is the perfect position of the foot, poised in the classic step position. Read on here, all questions answered.

An employee who works for Marie Diouf, aka salt Queen, harvests salt at a production site in Ndiemou on the outskirts of Fatick, Senegal, May 15, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra 

And a couple more pictures because I like them  

A firefighting aircraft flies over a forest as firefighters put out a fire near Kibbutz Harel, which was damaged by wildfires during a record heat wave in Israel May 24, 2019.   REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun 

A family prepares bread at their house in Egypt’s Nile Delta village of El Shakhluba, in the province of Kaft el-Sheikh, Egypt may 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Hayam Adel

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa April 5, 2019

A hand reaches in from the bright highlight as if attempting to touch the untouchable in Khaled Abdullah’s gentle picture of people suffering from cholera. Your eye goes straight to the women’s fingertips as everything else in this image is confusing and heavily backlit. The only other recognizable shapes are the saline bottles for the drip feed. You can see all you need to know in this compassionate image: someone is trying to get close to a loved one who is sick and in isolation. Read on here

A woman standing outside a tent where patients receive medical care at a Cholera treatment centre looks in at patients in Sanaa, Yemen March 10, 2019.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

What is attractive about Mohammed Salem’s picture is the rather playful use of scale and colour. Your eye flicks back from the writing on the bricks to the figures walking along the wall. Are the bricks in the foreground and is a trick of perspective is being played on us, or are they very large? The writings on the wall - messages of love and politics - add to this confusion. The colour plays with us too, giving an impression that this is a seascape, since the bricks are painted in the colours of the sea, and the rocks on top appear like crests of breaking waves just below blue skies and high white clouds. 

      

Palestinians walks on concrete blocks at the seaport of Gaza City April 2, 2019.   REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The nonchalance of the protester as he strides towards the flames, hat at a jaunty angle and tyre in hand, in Siphiwe Sibeko’s picture, is just irresistible. He’s got the body language of someone who has had enough and is resigned to doing something about it. What is especially nice is that Siphiwe has kept the foot in the frame. Cut off toes are a pet peeve of mine.  

A man walks with a car tyre as he barricades the street during a service delivery protest in Alexandra township in the north of Johannesburg, South Africa, April 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Even though Ramzi Boudina has cut off the fingers on the left of the picture (see my pet hate above), he’s produced a wonderful picture that exudes a mood of celebration and relief. News has just broken that President Bouteflika has resigned and the protest mood has changed to one of celebration and it’s now unlikely there will be confrontation with the police. The faces say it all. The crowd seems to press down on the man on the foreground, the light giving us a sense of heat and claustrophobia as we squint against its brightness. Read on here

People celebrate on the streets after Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika submitted his resignation, in Algiers, Algeria, April 2, 2019.   REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

A quiet day in Cairo so Amr Abdallah Dalsh had time to play with some lines and shapes. The fan-like shapes of the bridge and the fence aided by the curves of the uprights speed us to the perspective vanishing point dotted by the red brake light of the motorcyclist. I like the sliver of light alongside the length of the building on the right of the frame, because without it the picture would ‘fall’ to the right. And lastly spare a moment to consider where Amr is standing to shoot this image, bearing in mind the chaos of Cairo traffic.

People drive over Imbaba Bridge near Nile City Towers, owned by Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris in Cairo, Egypt, April 3, 2019.    REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

F1 motor racing is a terrific spectacle. When a car is damaged at night and still powers around the track spraying sparks, it’s really quite amazing. To capture that action the way Thaier al-Sudani has succeeded in doing is not easy but you need to be lucky. It’s all about being in the right place. The action took place a long way away and the frame had to cropped very tightly. The background is clean and dark so the sparks show up, It’s also at night, so far more dramatic than if it had happened in daylight.      

Sparks fly as Ferrari Formula One F1 driver Sebastian Vettel drives his damaged car during the Bahrain Grand prix at the Bahrain International circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain March 31, 2019.  REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani   

I can’t get the notion out of my mind that these drying items of clothing are representative of the victims who were killed or had limbs dismembered during the Rwandan genocide. Brightly coloured shirts missing arms, trouser legs missing feet and necklines missing heads, Jean Bizimana’s picture haunts me. Read on more here

Laundry is aired to dry on the grass at the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village built to rehabilitate children who lost their families in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in Rwamagana, eastern province of Rwanda April 1, 2019.  REUTERS/Jean Bizimana 

A Week in Pictures Middle East & Africa, May 25, 2018

There is no escaping the beauty of simple and strong composition of Amr Abdullah Dalsh’s picture. The tiny, silhouetted figures are dwarfed in front of the symmetrical structure, the strong light seems to dazzle, and makes me want to blink. It grabs you like a scene from an epic Spielberg film.

Egyptian Muslims perform evening prayers called ‘Tarawih’ inside Al Sultan Hassan mosque during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in the old Islamic area of Cairo, Egypt May 20, 2018. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh 

I admit it is a slightly bizarre choice to include Siphiwe Sibeko’s picture of cabbages being farmed. But take a minute to really look. Although the cabbages are bagged up it at first appears that the man sitting on top of the cabbages is perilously high on his unstable seat, what could possible go wrong? Next, I love the complementary reds and greens that vie for attention as they drive your eye around this picture. You quickly end up looking at the sign. The designer started off boldly only to discover, probably around the letter ‘T’, that if they carried on as they’d started they would not be able to fit the word ‘property’ into the sign. Lastly, is that a G or an upside down 5? This picture is being used to illustrate the complex story of a legal test of the constitution on land expropriation which you can read here

Farm workers harvest cabbages at a farm in Eikenhof, near Johannesburg, South Africa, May 21, 2018.   REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Omar Sanadiki’s beautifully lit picture seems to deliver mixed messages. You feel the pleasant warmth of the sun on the man’s face as he poses for a picture showing the V for victory sign with his hand. But his face is expressionless, cold, his mouth and eyes say nothing, and his hand is dirty with ash and grime, as are all his clothes. He sits in an environment of total destruction. Although we can never be certain what he is thinking I can guess that it is not thoughts of triumph.  

A man gestures as he sits on the rubble of damaged buildings in al-Hajar al-Aswad, Syria May 21, 2018.   REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

Omar Sanadiki’s picture of people moving through the rubble of destroyed buildings is not so different from Amr’s picture of the faithful at the mosque, at least in its visual structure. People are dwarfed in a landscape, and even though one image is taken at night and the other by day, the colours are similar. If you rotate one of the images through 180 degrees you will find the same the strong compositional U shape. All that aside, Omar’s image is one of relentless destruction, the figures leading you from the foreground to as far away as the eye can see. More pictures here .

Soldiers walk past damaged buildings in Yarmouk Palestinian camp in Damascus, Syria May 22, 2018.   REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

I am amazed at the order of Khaled Abdullah’s zigzag picture, not only in terms of its visual composition, but by the order of the people waiting in line for food handouts. They must be hungry, hot, a little frightened and no doubt tired. I have also chosen a second image from the same scene, as I was struck how this large line of people made such an impact on the landscape, and that so many are in need of help. The order, in both senses in Khaled’s powerful pictures, highlights to me the scale of the problem these people are facing. 

Women and girls queue outside a charity food distribution centre to get the iftar meal during the holy month of Ramadan in Sanaa, Yemen, May 22, 2018.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Women and girls queue outside a charity food distribution centre to get the iftar meal during the holy month of Ramadan in Sanaa, Yemen, May 22, 2018.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

The question that pops into my mind when looking at Essam al-Sudani’s picture is how can anything actually live in these conditions and why, as an investor, would you bet money on its survival? On the face of it nothing could grow. A yellow sandstorm as far as the eye can see is only punctuated by wind battered saplings as if in a scene plucked from a post-apocalyptic science fiction film. Maybe this is why I am not a successful investor?

Palm trees belonging to Kuwaiti investor Abdul-Aziz al-Babtain are seen near the port city of Basra, Iraq May 11, 2018.   REUTERS/Essam al-Sudani

Amr Abdullah Dalsh’s picture is, it must be said, a bit of a cliché, but one I kept coming back to. It’s fun, and it has caaptured a good moment. I do wish there was no water across the boy’s face, but I do like his scrunched up features and the ‘crown’ of water. So here it is, I hope you enjoy a quiet smile, like me.

An Egyptian boy jumps into the water to cool off in hot and humid weather during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt May 23, 2018.   REUTERS/Amr Abdullah Dalsh