A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, August 16, 2019

Strong colours and graphic shapes grab your attention immediately in Benoit Tessier’s

picture, with the open arms of the man being searched filling the clean background of the
cloudless blue sky. It also has a slightly bizarre feeling that highlights the tension of the
pat-down. What can you possibly find in such wide-open spaces that stretch to the far
horizon? I am sure there is sound reasoning behind this. Read on here.

A French soldier of the 2^nd Foreign Engineer Regiment searches a man during an area control operation in the Gourma region during Operation Barkhane in Ndaki, Mali, July 27, 2019.   REUTERS/Benoit Tessier 

Baz Ratner’s image is completely abstract and we can only guess at what is depicted in
the eye-catching swirl of hot red, orange and blacks. No figures, no real shape and no
sense of scale but you can’t help but continue to look to make sense of it, being drawn in
deeper and deeper. Once you read the caption you find out what is going on.

Lava is seen glowing inside the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano inside the Virunga national park near Goma in the Democratic republic of Congo August 9, 2019.   REUTERS/Baz Ratner 

Continuing with the theme of abstraction and moving slowly to the figurative, Feisal
Omar’s image of sheep being led to market is a pleasing graphic image with a gentle
curved composition and a strong right to left sweep to it.

Sheep are seen at a livestock market ahead of the Eid-al-Adha festival in Mogadishu, Somalia august 10, 2019.    REUTERS/Feisal Omar 

All good things come in threes so I had to complete the abstraction set with Muhammad
Hamed’s star-lit sky. The figure on the rock outcrop using a light gives us a single focal
point that both the previous images didn’t have. What has struck me is just how
comforting this focal point is and how - when it’s lacking from an image - it is missed
even if the image is strong in its overall design

A man watches the stars seen in the skies over Al-Kharza area of Wadi Rum in the south of Amman, Jordan July 27, 2019.   REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

A powerful and angry picture by Ammar Awad. Two policemen moving through a crowd
of struggling security forces and protesters are momentarily circled by the movement
throughout the image. The dark shapes of the uniformed men are harsh against the
pavement and the drift of tear gas, their weapons a stark focal point of the image. If the
circular composition is not enough to lead your eye to the police in the centre, the hand in
the foreground points the way.

Israel police clash with Palestinian worshippers on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as temple Mount as Muslims mark Eid al-Adha in Jerusalem Old City August 11, 2019.    REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Amir Cohen’s picture is one of those images that leads you in layer after layer like a
stage set. You start with the hooded figure on the left and his book, then across to the
man in the peaked cap and his book on the right, then down to sleeping man centrally
placed and next to him another man deep in concentration in his book. All set against a
wonderful backdrop of the ancient and yellowed wall.

Jewish worshipers pray on the Tisha B’Av, a day of fasting and lament, that commemorates the date in the Jewish calendar on which it is believed the First and Second temples were destroyed, near the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City August 11, 2019.   REUTERS/Amir Cohen  

Umit Bektas’ image looks like a bas-relief of white-robed figures on a rocky foreground
against a jet-black sky. The picture is drained of almost all colour and the eye is led to the
back of the image through the ever-decreasing size of the figures, which are dotted about
equally in space from foreground to far distance. This visual impression works only
because almost all the figures are uniformly clad.

Muslim pilgrims gather on Mount Mercy on the plains of Arafat during the annual Haj pilgrimage, outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia August 10, 2019.    REUTERS/Umit Bektas

A very brutal image by Philimon Bulawayo from the clashes in Harare that raises many
questions. A woman lies unconscious as a red-booted, baton-holding, policeman looks
down at her as he strolls by. The viewer may leap to many conclusions. Is she dead? I
checked with the photographer and was told no, she is okay. The body language appears
so aggressive and as an image is as powerful as the violence that led up to this scene. 

A policeman walks past a woman injured during clashes after police banned protests over austerity and rising costs called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 16, 2019.  REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo 

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa March 1, 2019

A last minute edition to this week's selection. Zohra Bensemra covered the clashes after Friday prayers in Algiers and produced a strong set of pictures moving from protesters viewpoint to that of the police. What I like most about this image is the simultaneous action of rock throwing by protesters and police seen through the haze of tear gas. The three protesters in the background are all captured at the different stages of rock throwing, pick up rock, aim, throw and run.

Anti-riot police clash with people protesting against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s plan to extend his 20-year rule by seeking a fifth term in April elections in Algiers, Algeria March 1, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

There is no getting away from the sense of urgency as people seem to struggle against overwhelming odds in Rodi Said’s picture. While the women try to escape the elements, the only glimmer of hope is the sun trying to break through the clouds, a scene played out against a backdrop that stretches to an infinity of emptiness. See the latest here

Women walk with their belongings near the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria February 26, 2019.   REUTERS/Rodi Said

Sumaya Hisham is making a small visual joke in her picture. At first glance we think it’s South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa smiling at us as he emerges from a corrugated iron shack. We soon realise that it’s someone holding a poster.  Nice to see a little gentle but sophisticated fun in the election campaign. 

A young girl holds an election poster for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Kkayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa, February 27, 2019.  REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham 

And while in a cheery mood, I can’t help adding a second picture from Sumaya from the same event. The colours, the warmth and the hand in on the left just jump out at me. This picture is so messy, with so many clashing colours, abstract and confusing shapes that it just should not work. But it does  

A woman holds an election poster for the ruling African National Congress (ANC) during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Kkayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa, February 27, 2019.  REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

Senegal is also holding presidential elections and there was no lack of pictures that ooze colour and shape. It was not an easy choice, but Zohra Bensemra’s image has it all. So many bright colours vie for attention but the narrow depth of field draws your eye to the face in the foreground that is haloed in yellow cloth. You have to work hard to see the face, eyes down and with a gentle smile, but at the same time the viewer is being drawn back to the colours in the queue.

People wait to cast their vote at a polling station in Fatick, Senegal, during the presidential election February 24, 2018.  REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

A dramatic image from Feisal Omar, in which rescue workers carry an injured man from a burning building after a bomb attack. Feisal has achieved a balance in scale so the viewer can see the action of the injured being carried while at the same time keeping the context of the wider scene in the background. This was all shot at night, while the attack was going on, which is not easy to achieve at all. See the full story here 

Rescue workers evacuate an injured man from the scene where a suicide car bomb exploded targeting a hotel in a business centre at Maka Al Mukaram street in Mogadishu, Somalia, February 28, 2019.   REUTERS/Fesial Omar

It’s a little unclear why the police officer is pointing at the ballot paper with his baton in Afolabi Sotunde’s picture. Is he giving advice? Is he pointing out where to vote? Is he indicating where a voter had put their mark? What makes this image really work is the eyes of the man on the left and the compositional “W” shape and line that take us through the officer’ back, his arm and baton to the cast vote. This is all set against the cool colour of the duck egg background. 

A police officer points his baton at a ballot paper during their sorting at Giginyu Primary school in Kano, Nigeria February 23, 2019.    REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde 

Two images from Gaza scream from opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. The first by Suhaib Salem shows a young girl crying at the funeral of one of her relatives killed during clashes. The girl holds a figure on the left who is just out of frame, a consoling hand from a woman with a stoic look on her face reaches out to touch her, but just falls short of the touch. Maybe the girl is inconsolable?   

A relative of Palestinian teenager Yousif al-Davyah, 15, who was killed at the Israel-Gaza border fence during a protest on Friday, mourns during his funeral in Gaza City February 23, 2019.   REUTERS/Suhaib Salem 

The second image, by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, shows sheer joy and relief on the woman’s face as she hugs her relative, knowing that he is alive, well and back at home. Her eyes are closed tight as she crushes him in a tight hug, her face pressed against his, feeling his closeness and breathing in his presence. The face on the right and the crowd on the left squeeze us into the image so we too feel the closeness of this moment.

A relative hugs a Palestinian Hamas member who went missing in Egypt with others a few years ago, after his arrival in Gaza City February 28, 2019.   REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Khaled Abdullah’s picture is a simple and striking half-length portrait of a girl in Yemen. The dark windows in the mud hut seem to echo her piecing look from within her niqab, her hand directing you to her eyes. What is most striking is the overwhelming sense of poverty, but it’s hard to pinpoint why we get this feeling. Is it the rough surface on the house in the background, the dust on her niqab, or the sun-bleached and torn clothing? Probably the combination of all three, but the caption confirms her poverty. She is in a camp for the displaced. 

A girl stands near a hut in an improvised camp for internally displaced people near Abs of the northwestern province of Haija, Yemen, February 18, 2019.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah 

Because I am interested in how we see pictures, I have added Thaier al-Sudani’s Friday prayers image. What do you see first? The shape and lines are quite regular but immediately you are drawn to the yellow shirt. Is it the combination of yellow and black, nature’s danger flag, think wasp or bee? Or is it that you can clearly see the word SPORTS? The mind’s eye always wants to read text and make sense of letters in pictures. Or did your eye jump to the complementary colours of red and green, bottom left? And how long does it take you to see the man in wheelchair as your eye darts around the image? Lastly, did you see the boy standing up, his hand to his mouth? 

Supporters of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr attend Friday prayers in Baghdad’s Sadr City, March 1, 2019.   REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani

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

There is no mistaking the classic beauty of Eissa Alragehi’s picture. It depicts the kind of calm that the pre-Raphaelites strove to achieve in their paintings of imagined rural bliss. But this is Yemen, a far from perfect world, so maybe this is why the top of the tree is cropped off, a slight distraction in this otherwise wonderful picture.  

Students displaced from different cities in Yemen’s northwestern province attend an outdoor class under a tree near Abs, Yemen January 28, 2019.   REUTERS/Eissa Alragehi

Also from Yemen, this brutal image by Fawaz Salman of the execution of two men convicted in court of child rape raises many ethical dilemmas. Should this picture be taken? Should this picture be published? If it’s not taken or published are we self-censoring what is happening in Yemen? If it is taken and published are we normalizing brutality? Is this execution, although legal in Yemen, brutal or just?  These decisions are not taken lightly and keep me awake at night. The men are not dead and this is not the moment of death. My view is that this an important picture to take and publish because this is what is happening in Yemen now. Professional photographers facing this decision will use their own moral compass to decide how to shoot this image. It is also worth noticing the dozens of people using phones to film and photograph the scene. Will they face the same ethical dilemmas when they decide whether to share on social media – thus raising another unanswerable question? 

A police officer prepares for the execution of Wadah Refat, 28 and Mohamed Khaled, 31, who were convicted of raping a twelve-year-old boy, in Aden Yemen February 7, 2018.    REUTERS/Fawaz Salman

And while we are considering ethical dilemmas, Khaled Abdullah had some difficult choices when illustrating the story of conjoined children born in Sanaa Yemen. It is a tragic story that needs to be highlighted, but many would shy away from publishing brutal images of babies suffering in this way. A solution is a clever picture of medical staff looking at x-rays. Even though the reality of the conjoined children can be clearly seen, the image offers hope as the doctors study the x-ray and we allow ourselves the belief there just might be a chance of a normal life. The full story, with other images, can be seen here

Doctors check the x-ray film of newly born conjoined twins at the child intensive care unit of al-Thawra hospital in Sanaa, Yemen February 6, 2019.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

It’s nice when shapes and light all come together to lift an ordinary scene into an image that is a little more special, and this is where Philimon Bulawayo’s picture succeeds. The great shapes of the hat and shoulders are set against the colour of the background, enhanced by the flicker of light from the flame on the face. Delightful. It lifts my spirits.

Zimbabwean Bishop Regina Katsande lights a candle during a national prayer meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, February 7, 2019.   REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

Mohamed, Torokman’s picture has the same structural feel as Philimon’s image above. A single gesture by Alexander Van de Bellen, who looks across to his Palestinian counterpart, lifts an ordinary scene into a picture that is a little more special. The direction of the look by the two men keeps your eye from speeding beyond the edge of the frame as you follow the line of the flags. I like the 16 X 9 format of this image too. It’s easy on the eye as you race back and forth from side to side and back again. 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen attend a joint news conference in Ramallah, in the occupied Israeli-occupied West Bank February 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman 

The Pope visits United Arab Emirates. There’s a lot of excitement and security is tight. Ahmed Jadallah, as well as producing many classic ‘Pope makes a visit’ pictures, had the  courage to turn 180 degrees from the action to look in the opposite direction to the crowds to produce this very calm security picture. The soldier, although tiny, still jumps out in the frame to grab your eye as the blacks of his uniform stand out against the soft pastels of the blue sky and eggshell white of the minarets.

A member of the security forces guards during the arrival of Pope Francis at the Sheikh Zayad Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates February 4, 2019.   REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

It’s not often that direct eye contact adds to a news picture. In fact it will often destroy it, but Feisal Omar’s image bucks that trend. The reason is that the eye contact takes you directly into the centre of the image, past the red jacket and the cut-off hand that extends annoyingly out of the frame on the right, and the yellow and orange on the rescue worker’s clothing on the left. Once we are through this visual noise, we get to see the injured man on the stretcher and the intense look of the men wheeling him to safety.

Security forces and emergency services evacuate an injured man from the scene where a car bomb exploded at a shopping mall in Mogadishu, Somalia, February 4, 2019.  REUTERS/Feisal Omar

It’s difficult to ignore a sea of red with a beaming smile in the middle. It’s especially difficult when there are two people wearing blue shirts on either side of the picture, maybe they didn’t get the email? I like to think that Siphiwe Sibeko spotted these blue shirts when he shot and cropped the picture. I suspect so, as there were thousands attending the rally. If not, he can add luck to his list of skills. 

Supporters of South Africa’s radical left-wing party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), hold placards during the launch of the party’s election manifesto in Soshanguve, near Pretoria, South Africa February 2, 2019.    REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko 

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa January 11, 2019

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 man looks up at old Zimbabwean currency notes for sale in Harare, Zimbabwe January 10, 2019.   REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

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

A week in Pictures Middle East & Africa October 19, 2018

The chaos of a bomb blast can best be appreciated alongside a scene of ordinary daily life, especially when it’s the same exact spot, a year earlier. Feisal Omar’s powerful before and after pictures take the viewer from the devastation of Somalia’s blasts to a street scene you can quite easily imagine walking or driving along. It makes you think, ‘that could have been me’. See the whole series here. 

A combination picture of a file photo (top) showing Somali Armed Forces evacuating an injured colleague from the scene of an explosion in KM4 street in the Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia October 14, 2018 and traffic flowing in the same place along KM4 street almost a year later, October 10, 2018.   REUTERS/Feisal Omar

I include two pictures from Suhaib Salem to demonstrate the importance of employing different styles to give the overall file pace and depth. The first image is ‘in your face’, fraught with passion and action. The whole visual focus sends you immediately to the woman’s screaming face. The eye line and the faces of the people in the background, hands reaching in. and the two inward looking faces of the women left and right keep you looking and looking, no escape from her distress. 

A relative of Palestinian gunman Naji al-Zaneen, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, reacts during his funeral in the northern Gaza strip October 17, 2018.   REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

The second image from Suhaib takes longer to ‘see’ but is no less powerful. It has a strong compositional flow, driven by the eye line of the weeping child on the bottom left and moving like a wave that reaches its crest with the woman in blue and then falls away to the crying child on the right. As you take the time to look from face to face, the sadness grows like a wave gathering its height. The immediate impact of the first picture and the slow build of the second are powerful storytelling combination.   

Relatives of Palestinian gunman Naji al-Zaneen, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, mourn during his funeral in the northern Gaza strip October 17, 2018.   REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

What is not clear from Newton Nambwaya’s picture is if this coffin is being carried by a villager who has lost a family member or a rescue worker. I suppose that doesn’t really matter as the task at hand is just as precarious. I feel real apprehension for this person carrying the awkward load of the empty coffin across a makeshift bridge. What I am also struggling to understand is why the others are just watching and not helping?

A man crosses the Sume river carrying an empty coffin on his head after a landslide rolled down the slopes of Mt. Elgon through their village of Wanjenwa in Bududa district, Uganda, October 13, 2018.  REUTERS/Newton Nambwaya

If you have read my post before you will know just how much pleasure I get when an editor’s crop changes a good picture into a great picture. A perfect example of this is Mohamed Torokman’s picture from the West Bank cropped by Suhaib Salem. Both pictures were moved to the wire, the wider version giving the action context, but the tight crop, wham! What emotion! This picture leads Reuters global ‘picture of the week’ that you can see here. 

A Palestinian man argues with an Israeli soldier during clashes over an Israeli order to shut down a Palestinian school near Nablus in the occupied west bank October 15, 2018.   REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

I am very attracted to Omar Sanadiki’s picture from the Syria-Jordan border, not only because of the symmetry of the converging lines of perspective that race to the vanishing point in the distance but also because of the splash of a filled-in shell crater in front of the car. The pothole is a reminder of the fighting that took place in this area only weeks ago. 

A civilian car from Jordan passes into Syria at the Nasib border crossing with Jordan in Deraa, Syria October 15, 21018.   REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

Corinna Kern’s simple detail picture raises so many questions when you first see it. First, it’s beautifully lit, you can see details of the aging skin and veins on well-manicured hands, the nails perfectly painted a deep red. The jewelry, except for the bracelet on the right hand, looks a little out of place as it’s quite heavy and dark on the delicate hands. Maybe its worn for a memory attached to it?  The watch looks expensive (but I am no expert) and maybe not worn every day as it doesn’t look like a practical timepiece. Some of the questions are answered by the caption, but then the information sets off other trains of thought. Maybe some more answers here.

A Holocaust survivor waits for the beginning of the annual Holocaust survivor’s beauty pageant in Haifa, Israel October 14, 2018.   REUTERS/Corinna Kern

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa July 13, 2018

There is no escaping the feeling that Ronen Zvulun’s picture is more than a little bizarre. Five people dressed the same, sitting on what looks like a precipice, legs daggling into the abyss looking into Syria. Once you get past looking at the raised arms and wondering why they are doing that, your gaze is propelled to the far horizon through blue skies to a haze that might be created by the clashes near the border or could just be banks of cloud. 

Israeli Druzes sit together watching the Syrian side of the Israel-Syrian border on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel, July 7 2018.   REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun 

Feisal Omar’s picture is a powerful news picture in a classic sense: it’s full of action and drama. Armed men rush through bomb-damaged streets; your eye races around the frame in confusion. Your attention darts from the coloured screen and reds and blacks of the tuk tuk, to the shadows and harsh vertical lines of the grey concrete building behind, back to the gunman on the left, and finally to the three men on the right, with their weapons held at the ready.  You can see the full sequence of pictures here. 

Somali security agents take position as they secure the scene of a suicide car bombing near Somalia’s Presidential Palace in Mogadishu, Somalia, July 7, 2018.   REUTERS/Feisal Omar

Alaa Al-Fakir’s picture is all about perseverance and determination. The small girl labors in the heat of the overhead sun at what seems her impossible task of pushing a wheelchair-bound elderly person over rough and barren terrain. The glimmer of hope I try to take from this picture of difficult struggle is the determination in the girl’s efforts. Using the full force of her body, she is not giving up: her legs are braced, head down and arms straight. She will succeed in helping this person less able than her. 

An internally displaced girl pushes a woman in a wheelchair near the Israeli-occupied Golan heights in Quneitra, Syria July 11, 2018.   REUTERS/Alaa Al-Fakir

When I look at the light and compositional structure of Ronen Zvulun’s picture I think of the American painter Edward Hopper . Warm and cold colours, strong lines and bold flat shapes fighting for equal amounts of space. The figure always perfectly positioned in the composition, but leaving us with the sense that they are slightly distant, divorced or uncomfortable, that they’d rather be elsewhere. 

A Syrian woman holds a baby as she walks into a checking room just after they crossed the armistice line to the Israeli-occupied Golan heights to get medical treatment in Israel July 11, 2018.   REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun 

I was impressed with Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s picture from Gaza for complex reasons that I will explain. Often, he covers clashes and funerals but we also need to illustrate less visually rich news stories such as financial and complex political stories about longer-term trends. On this occasion the story was China’s growing economic influence in the Middle East. Not an easy one, not one to make immediate impact but certainly one to demonstrate sophisticated visual thinking. What would you take a picture of? When a customer searches ‘China Gaza’ to illustrate the political and economic of China’s role in Gaza this image will be found. It’s a ‘slow burn’ clever picture told by the words MADE IN CHINA on the box. 

A Palestinian vendor carries a cardboard box containing toys made in China, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 10, 2018.  REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa  

Two striking and thoughtful pictures from Sumaya Hisham to illustrate the ongoing turmoil at the energy company Eskom. I love the march of the pylons appearing over the hill like an alien army. With the washed out sky, the cold steel shapes seem to be wading  through what looks like a cold sea, an effect created by the horizonal lines in the grass. Read on here about the Eskom pay deal.

Electricity pylons carrying power from Koeberg nuclear power station are near Cape Town, South Africa, July 11, 2018.   REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

And in Sumaya’s picture below I love the patches of cold blue of the cross painted in the door and the equally cold blue light in the two windows on the left countered by the warmth of the sky and the hot spots of the lights overhead. And both these pictures were used to match a financial story about pay negotiations between workers and a company. To produce such imaginative pictures from what is a relatively dry story is a mark of a great photographer.   

Overhead power lines are seen at Khayelitsha informal housing settlement near cape Town, South Africa, July10, 2018.  REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

To describe Andreea Campeanu’s picture as ‘busy’ would probably be the understatement of the week. Your eye jumps from the red shirt of the barber, to the window highlight reflected in the mirror, back down the whites and blues of the customer’s shirt, up to the pattern on the ceiling, then down along the pictures of potential styles on the back wall, to the barber’s brush held and silhouetted against the mirror on the back wall. Finally, you come to rest on the gentle eyes and broad smile of the customer. It’s then you notice the next customer, seated, waiting in line, also reflected in the mirror. What an epic journey and all in such a small barber shop.   

An Internally displaced man receives care inside a barber shop in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) protection of Civilian 3 site (PoC), outside Juba South Sudan, July 12, 2018.    REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu