Eat your heart
out Alfred Hitchcock fans, as Baz Ratner has produced a terrific picture
with a crow backlit by a partial eclipse. Technically a nightmare to expose
for; and to get the full curve of the sun just above the slope of the roof with
the crow looking into the centre of the curve is just magical. More eclipse
pictures here.
A crow stands on a
roof as a partial solar eclipse is observed in Nairobi, Kenya, June 21, 2020.
REUTERS/Baz Ratner
World
Refugee Day brought out the numbers interest in photographer
Khalil Ashawi. Nine years of conflict in Syria that has generated millions of
refugees. Khalil set about
finding nine children, from nine different cities impacted by the conflict, each
aged 1 to 9. He then posed them for a picture in their temporary accommodation
to produce a sad and haunting set of images, one of which I
include. It seemed only natural to make a square combination
picture from all nine portraits that not only hinted at the sense of scale of
the problem but also provide the perfect shape for sharing on social media to
draw attention to the plight of these youngsters. Read on here.
Rawan al-Aziz, a
6-year-old Syrian displaced child, from Southern Idlib countryside, poses for a
picture in a tent at Atmeh camp, near the Turkish border, Syria June 19, 2020.
Picture taken June 19, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Combination picture
shows (top row, L-R) Ranim Barakat, a 9-year-old displaced Syrian girl from
Hama countryside; Jumana and Farhan al-Alyawi, a 8-year-old displaced Syrian
twins from east Idlib; Maysaa Mahmoud, a 5-year-old Syrian displaced child from
Homs countryside; (middle row, L-R) Walid al-Khaled, a 2-year-old displaced
Syrian child from Aleppo city; Rawan al-Aziz, a 6-year-old displaced Syrian
child, from Southern Idlib countryside; Mahmoud al-Basha, a 3-year-old
displaced Syrian child; (bottom row, L-R) Mariam al-Mohamad, a 4-year-old
displaced Syrian child from Homs city; Mohamed Abdallah, a 7-year-old displaced
Syrian boy from Jabal al-Zawiya in Idlib's southern countryside and Abdul
Rahman al-Fares, a 4-month-old displaced Syrian baby from south Idlib
countryside posing for pictures in a tent at Atmeh camp, near the
Turkish border, Syria June 19, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
As
heatwaves hit different parts of the globe Mohamed Abd El Ghany’s sunrise picture is a great illustration. The
shimming orb dwarfs the buildings and trees in
the foreground as it rises to clear the horizon. A picture that
is easy enough to shoot in
Egypt for sure but the added treat in this one is the
kite dancing in the morning air on the right that you will miss if you don’t look
closely enough.
The sun rises in
Cairo, Egypt June 23, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
For me
there is a very strong sense of sadness in Raneen
Sawafta’s picture. Maybe it’s the ghost- like
appearance of the figure in the cloth, maybe the fact the colours are drained from her face or could it be that her
eyes are downcast and we can’t see
into them? Probably a combination
of all those things. The
strength of the image is in making me instantly feel that emotion. The caption
explains the sadness - it’s International Widows
Day.
Manal Al-Essa, a
Palestinian woman whose husband died of cancer, is seen through a dress she
sewed for sale, on the International Widows Day, in Tubas in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank June 23, 2020. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
Zohra Bensemra’s picture of children at play is an instant antidote to the image above. I am
sure like me you can hear their open-mouthed
laughter. The black circular shape of the tire dominates the image, but
Zohra has given us just enough time and space to look around the front of it to
see all the way up the narrow dirt street. Captured to perfection are the hands
rolling the tire, the younger child, I presume sister, reaching out to catch
her big brother, his hands positioned giving the tire motion. The
tiny but important space between the boy’s flip-flop
and his foot and the echoed line of the running children’s legs. Such
an affectionate and warm daily life picture.
Children play with
a tire, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Yoff
neighbourhood of Dakar, Senegal June 24, 2020.
REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
It’s that
look over the white mask that instantly captures me in Siphiwe Sibeko’s picture, there is no getting away from those eyes. The man at first
glance is appears as if he is elaborately dressed but on closer inspection we
see that he has just loosened his jacket and unbuttoned and half
taken off his checkered shirt
to expose his yellow T shirt and more importantly his left arm. He is being
injected with a vaccine trial for the coronavirus.
The cleverly cropped text in the picture
just above gloved hands, reading “‘Be
wise”, seems to almost a question rather
than a statement.
A volunteer
receives an injection from a medical worker during the country's first human
clinical trial for a potential vaccine against the novel coronavirus, at the
Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa, June 24, 2020. REUTERS/Siphiwe
Sibeko
The
lighting and feel in Siphiwe Sibeko’s image puts me in mind of an
opening shot of a film set in the 1930s and exploring the
Great Depression. Dozens and dozens of people just waiting in a
scene sucked of any colour. A
powerful compositional arc leads you from the back of the queuing figures at the
bottom right, around past the post that cuts vertically across the
picture and the red traffic lights out to the bus on the left and then onto the
bus in the hazy blue light, top
right. You come away with a feeling of a never-ending
wait in line.
Buses are seen as
stranded commuters wait for transportation at a bus terminal during a protest
by taxi operators over the government's financial relief for the taxi industry,
amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, in Soweto, South Africa, June
22, 2020. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
There is
no escaping the feeling of exhaustion and maybe even a slight sense of
intrusion in Essam Al-Sudani’s picture,
which has been shot quite wide
so we get a real sense of the functional space. A stolen moment of peace and
quiet, the head is tilted back even though the harsh room lights glare back –
not very soft and relaxing lighting for sure and this is a
utilitarian room that is not designed for
comfort and relaxion. The flopped hand in the figure’s
body language tells us he is doing his best to try to just a little rest before
getting back to work.
An assistant of Dr.
Hiba Jabbar Ashoor wears a protective face mask while taking a break at Basra
Teaching Hospital, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease
(COVID-19), in Basra, Iraq June 20, 2020. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani At first
glance Mohamed Torokman’s picture is more than a little messy. The
highlights in the background draw the eye, the feet of the soldier are cropped
off (Grrrr – very much a pet hate of mine), the face of the man in
the white shirt is obscured by his hand, as well as the soldier on the left
give us a sense of obscuring the action while the soldier on the right seems to
add nothing. Now look at the next and the recrop.
A Palestinian man
argues with an Israeli soldier during a protest against Israel's
plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, in Jordan Valley June 24, 2020.
REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
Wham! No misunderstanding now what
is going on. The soldier’s rifle is being prodded into the demonstrator’s lower
chest and we now see the staring
focus of the man’s eyes. We are also captivated by the masked child who looks
directly into the camera, seemly oblivious
of the potential danger. Equally important, what we
can also now see is that
the soldier’s finger is carefully away from the trigger.
Would I have cropped this tighter to remove the running photographer in the
background, coming down to lose a slice of the arm on the right and match that
by taking a slither off the soldier’s
backpack on the left? Probably. But
hey, I am nit-picking, which
is a little unfair.
A Palestinian man
argues with an Israeli soldier during a protest against Israel's
plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, in Jordan Valley June 24, 2020.
REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman
