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

It’s not easy to illustrate load-shedding, more commonly known as power cuts, especially when it’s still daylight and small generators are used to create power and light. But Mike Hutchings has made good use of the backlight from inside a shop to draw you deep into this image.

A shop assistant stands in the doorway of a party goods store during an electricity load-shedding black out in Johannesburg, South Africa, February 12, 2019.   REUTERS/Mike Hutchings 

I am a great fan of pictures that are confusing and where it takes a little while to sort out in your mind’s eye what is really going on. Luc Gnago’s image is a good example. The green hats spring immediately into focus but only slowly do you get to make shapes of limbs under the white cloth. I still don’t quite know what the dark brown rods are but I don’t think that really matters. It’s a fun pre-election picture only slightly spoiled by the rather annoying yellow shape in the background, that I will choose to ignore.  

Supporters of the people’s democratic party (PDP) perform wearing hats with PDP branding during a campaign rally in Lagos, Nigeria February 12, 2019.  REUTERS/Luc Gnago

As attractive to me as confusion are simple compositional graphic shapes and lines and this well is illustrated in Taibat Ajiboye’s portrait of a young Nigerian voter. The lines of the roofs and the foundations of the houses draw you into the frame, where you are abruptly stopped by the solid back shape of the umbrella, framing the youthful face of the young woman. The brief was simple: Photograph a first-time voter and ask three simple questions about their expectations of the election. Taibat has gone the extra mile. You can see the full set of portraits and Q&A’s here

Noimot Shuaib Ajoke, 18-year-old first time voter, carries her child as she poses for a picture in Malete in Kwara state, Nigeria February 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Taibat Ajiboye 

Mohamed al-Sayaghi’s image frame it without being the central part of it. This framing also gives is a slight sense that we are intruding. We are stopped in our tracks just before we enter the picture. This of course is not the case. We are most welcome, so come on in and enjoy the steamy warmth. The next surprise is that from the caption we learn this is in Sanaa, Yemen. 

People have Turkish bath at a newly-opened traditional Turkish-style steam bath in Sanaa, Yemen February 8, 2019.   REUTERS/ Mohamed al-Sayaghi

Okay, okay, it’s a simple picture about shapes, mainly triangles, big ones, small ones, the pyramids, big and small, the small black shape of the man’s arms and the space created between his legs as he struggles against the wind. He is placed perfectly between in the V of the space between the pyramids. I like it too that the picture stomps its way from left to right, the line and base of the pyramid on the right meeting the edge of the frame at the exact same point.  

A man walks in front of the Great Pyramids in Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, February 15, 2019.   REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Love is in the air, or maybe not. Your eye dances about, confused, not quite sure why you can’t quite read all the words in Dylan Martinez’s picture. It’s how I imagine a dyslectic may see pages of text as the letters rotate in the shop window. Finally, they stop rotating in your mind’s eye and you see LOVE and the boy peering into the shop window set against the deliberately over-exposed background. Happy Valentine’s Day.   

A youngster walks past a shop selling LOVE signs, chocolates and flowers on Valentine’s Day in Gaza City, February 14, 2019.   REUTERS/Dylan Martinez 

It takes a little time to spot anything in Ammar Awad’s picture that you would not see if it had been taken two hundred years ago. Maybe the metal chair in the background? Maybe not. It takes a little time to see the scaffolding, top left. This timeless feel,  brought about by the aged yellow of the brickwork, the tired and ancient paintwork and the warmth it radiates, makes me want to look and look at this picture. What is nice is that this image is part of a story about joint Israeli and Palestinian tour guides for the Old City, which you can see here.

An Ethiopian Orthodox priest sits outside the Ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City February 12, 2019.   REUTERS/Ammar Awad

I feel somewhat claustrophobic when I look at Philimon Bulawayo’s image of a rescue worker at a collapsed gold mine. Surrounded by others watching, the rescuer looks ill-equipped for the task at hand, the mud caked on his tensed arms, hands and face as he lifts himself from the tiny gap of the mine shaft entrance. The picture gives me the feeling there is little hope for those trapped and buried.  Full story here 

A rescuer climbs out of a mine shaft as rescue efforts proceed for trapped illegal gold miners in Kadoma, Zimbabwe, February 15, 2019.   REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

A Week in Pictures Middle East & Africa April 6, 2018

The clashes on the Gaza border have generated many striking pictures this week. It was hard to isolate just one so I have chosen three. Suhaib Salem’s picture is so sad that it’s almost painful to look at. The woman appears to be holding on to the doorway as if it’s the life of Hamdan himself, refusing to believe he is dead. The mourners behind her are pulling her gently and firmly back to the truth and the realisation that he is dead and nothing will bring him back, no matter how hard she clings to the doorway. More pictures can be seen here .

Mourners hold back a relative of Palestinian Hamdan Abu Amshah, who was killed along Israel’s border with Gaza, during his funeral in Beit Hanoun own, in the northern Gaza strip March 31, 2018,   REUTERS/Suhaib Salem 

There is no mistaking the anger in Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s picture as Palestinians confront Israeli troops in what looks like a scene from a battle from a bygone age. The landscape, like the protesters’ clothes, is blackened by smoke from burning tyres. The burning grass of the scorched earth draws your eye to the fire, and to the raw fury in the face of the protester.

A Palestinian holds burning material during clashes with Israeli troops at the Israeli-Gaza border, in the southern Gaza strip April 3, 2018.    REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

I can’t help thinking of images showing lines of troops facing each other on an agreed field of battle in an ancient conflict when I look at Amir Cohen’s picture. The faint puff of smoke from tear gas looks like cannon fire, with the tents of the combatants ranged in background. This battle was no less fatal for some. 

Israeli soldiers shoot tear gas from the Israeli side of the Israeli-Gaza border as Palestinians protest on the Gaza side of the border, March 30, 2018.   REUTERS/Amir Cohen

It's worth an update with Mohammed Salem's picture that is now featuring in many publications and hear from Mohammed himself how this image was taken 

"I was 300 metres away from the fence. Those youths were calling to other young men, urging them to come forward in order to cross the border fence", Salem recalls. "The whole place was covered in heavy smoke rising up from the many tires that had been burnt. They cam close to each other, in excitement. In the background Israeli fired heavy tear gas, and tried to extinguish the burning tires. I knew it was a good picture, and a strong one, the moment I saw the scene." Read on here.

Palestinian protestors shout during clashes with Israeli troops at a protest demanding the right to return to their homeland, at the Israeli-Gaza border esst of Gaza City, April 6, 2018.  REUTERS/Mohammed Salem 

Sometimes a simple, posed illustrative picture serves well not only to tell a story but to give a sense of the scale of the object being photographed. This is true in Abdullah Dhiaa Al-Deen’s picture of a diorama from the conflict in Iraq. The exquisite details of the model are lifted by being set against a clean background, with the scale of the model determined by the arm and hand of the model maker. This affectionate story of a soldier recovering from trauma can be seen here.

Mini-diorama, showing model Iraqi vehicle, is held by model maker and creator Radwan Nasser Abdel Amir, a former Iraqi soldier aged 28, in Kerbala, Iraq April 1, 2018.    REUTERS/ Abdullah Dhiaa Al-Deen

A difficult crop choice for Siphiwe Sibeko for his cricket picture. Does he go for the wider shot that shows Elgar at full stretch catching the ball, although his feet are cropped out and the ball is a little lost. Or does he crop in tight so you lose the flow of the body but you quickly get to see the hands perfectly poised to catch the ball?

South Africa’s Dean Elgar catches the ball off Australia’s Tim Paine during the Fourth Test at the Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa April 1, 2018.   REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

At funerals and memorial services you often hear the phrase “celebration of life” used to describe what is often a sad occasion. Siphiwe Sibeko’s picture is just that, a celebration of Winnie Mandela life. I so want to hear what these women are singing. Their faces emanate beauty, strength and joy, their hands and arms moving to the rhythm of their song. I come away feeling hope after looking at this picture, so thank you, Siphiwe. More pictures here. 

Members of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) sing outside the home of late Winnie Mandela in Soweto, South Africa, April 3, 2018.    REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

I could not resist adding Ulli Michel’s wonderful iconic image of the release of Nelson Mandela as maybe this is what the singers are actually celebrating, the hard-fought freedom from apartheid. 

Nelson Mandela, accompanied by his wife Winnie, walks out of the Victor Verster prison, near Cape Town, after spending 27 years in apartheid jails, February 11, 1990.   REUTERS/Ulli Michel 

A little bit of luck for Ammar Awad changes a nicely framed picture into something a little bit special. A flash of light from a phone camera as a worshipper gazes upwards, arms open in prayer, adds an unexpected element that could never be anticipated, especially when shooting pictures in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Worshippers pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City during the traditional Washing of the Feet ceremony April 5, 2018.   REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The conflict on the Israeli-border continues to throw up eye-catching images and none more so than this bizarre picture by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa. I can’t imagine why you’d dress up as Tweety Pie, ask your friend to dress up as a clown and then head off to clashes. What troubles me more is why you would not wear shoes. If the motivation was to draw attention to the border clashes it certainly does so, with a heady visual mix of flames, smoke, scorched earth, a masked protester beating a make-shift drum, and two people in cartoon character costumes. I am not sure what message this conveys and I suppose it’s this chaos that attracts me to this wonderfully strange picture.

Palestinians wearing costumes are seen at the clashes on the Israeli-Gaza border in the Southern Gaza strip April 5, 2018.   REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Although Mike Hutching’s picture was shot in January, it was only moved to the wire this week to illustrate the water crisis in Cape Town. I must admit I’d always rather have person in a picture but there is no escaping the brutal beauty of this image. The low sun casts warm yellow light on the stones in the foreground as well as deep shadows that emphasise the cracks in the dried out reservoir bed. Your eyes race along these cracks to the blue horizon, not a drop of water in sight. A terrifying picture of pending environmental disaster. 

Caked, dried mud is seen at Theewatersloof dam near Cape Town, South Africa, January 21, 2018.   REUTERS/Mike Hutchings