A Week in Pictures Middle East & Africa December 22, 2017

A few days before Christmas and protesters are wearing Santa Claus outfits to hurl stones at the Israeli military. Mohammad Torokman’s surreal, balletic image catches not only the stone in mid flight but the weird sheen of the red costume as the light catches the synthetic material. The soldiers in the background don’t look too worried. See more here

A Palestinian demonstrator dressed as Santa Claus hurls stones towards Israeli troops during clashes at a protest against U.S President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the West bank city of Ramallah December 19, 2107.   REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

As a follow on to Mohammad’s picture it’s worth mentioning that at all security advice training courses one is taught to ‘blend in, don’t stand out’ and be the ‘grey man’. It seems that this advice should have been better heeded or maybe it’s being ignored to make a point. Looking at pictures from previous years here it seems the latter is true.

A wounded Palestinian demonstrator dressed as Santa Claus is evacuated during clashes with Israeli troops, at a protest as Palestinians called for a ‘A Day of Rage’ in response to U.S President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, near the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip December 22, 2017.   REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

As a nod to my love of commodity stories Ange Aboa’s picture really caught my eye. The strong left to right flow of the picture as the worker pulls the heavy sack of beans off the ground aided by the low angle of the bare footed man walking away, his toes echoing the tone, colour and shape of the scattered beans on the ground. I also like the warm sepia feel of this picture, which is wonderful as it’s about the raw materials that go to make up chocolate.

Workers transport sacks of cocoa beans in Ntui village, Cameroon, December 17, 2017.   REUTERS/Ange Aboa

A moment perfectly captured by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa as each militant figure forms the unmistakable shape of a combatant. What I really like about this picture is that each figure is clearly isolated in their own space, no part of any of them invading the space of another. Bizarrely, I am put in mind of classic images of soldiers used in illustrations or even action figures. 

Palestinian militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) demonstrate their skills during a military exercise in front of the media, on a beach in the southern Gaza Strip December 22, 2017.    REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Silhouettes and sunsets are easy, low hanging fruit for nice pictures but rarely do they catch my eye or make me pause for thought. Ahmed Jadallah’s picture in Dubai is an exception to this and for many of the same reasons that I selected Ibraheem’s picture above. Just about every silhouetted figure is isolated in their own space. What is different is that a railing joins them all, but for me this only adds to the layered feel of the image. Distinct bands of shadow and highlight lead you to the background of the picture where the setting sun is sufficiently obscured that we see a yellow glow and not an over exposed white.

People watch the sunset in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 21, 2017.  REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

This picture by Muhammad Hamed selects itself, not only is it a picture of a VW Beetle (why is it that everyone seems to love this car?) but it is shot as an ‘environmental portrait’ with wonderful details that makes you want to look and look. First is the advert for ‘the smallest hotel’ which I think is a dreadful painting of the castle in the background, a promise of a wonderful view from the ‘hotel’. Then you quickly notice the car is balanced on rocks that hold it off the ground. Next you see the footwear of the occupants left outside, no doubt to ensure the interior is not made dirty and then finally the decoration to disguise the fact that this is, in reality, a broken down car. You might even be able to see the small Santa Claus figure on the roof, I assume an attempt to drum up seasonal trade. Having slept in cars on many occasions I will not be booking this up but I am sure many others will.

A Volkswagen Beetle, the ‘World’s smallest hotel’ as its owner Mohammed Al-Malahim claims, is seen in Shoubak, Jordan December 20, 2017.  REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

In very much the same way people like VWs, I can’t help being drawn to the long suffering beast of burden, the donkey. Not quite sure why, as animals come a far second to people, but I’m adding these pictures by Alaa Al-Marjani (although shot in November it was only published this week) as personal favourites. First it really struck me just how primitive the nature of the brick works are, but it also slightly gladdened my heart that now we are getting images of construction and not destruction from Iraq.  I really like the mirror image feel of Alaa’s picture as the donkeys face each other. Very powerful visually for me too is the smoke from the chimneys drifting into the blue skies, the blackened stack almost the focal point of the image. I can’t help feeling a sense of hope as the industry of rebuilding starts to take shape. 

Iraqi labourers work at a brick factory in Najaf, Iraq November 28, 2017.  REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Iraqi labourers carry brick on a cart pulled by a donkey at a brick factory in Najaf, Iraq November 28, 2017.  REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Never far from my mind is the conflict in Yemen, maybe it’s because I am often looking at images that rarely make their way into publication. Abduljabbar Zeyad’s distressing picture of tiny Nadia cries out to me in all senses. The obvious fear and feeble cries of the child is captured with the open mouth and wide-open eyes, a spot catches light in the centre of the dark eye. This frightening scene frozen in a harsh direct light is framed by a riot of clashing cheerful colours, pinks, reds blues and greens, a medical tube snaking across the whole scene, maybe offering a glimmer of hope for survival.

Sixty-day-old Nadia Ahmad Sabri, who suffers from severe malnutrition, lies in bed at a malnutrition treatment centre in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida, Yemen December 20, 2017.   REUTERS/Abduljabber Zeyad

Finally for 2017 I am very proud that Zohra Bensemra, staff photographer for Reuters who is based in Algeria and has travelled throughout the Middle East and Africa in 2017, has won the Guardian award for Agency Photographer of the Year. You can see some of her work here.

Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, October 8, 2017

Balanced on a pile of cushions, a gunman aims his rifle through a hole in a wall. Half shut your eyes and Erik de Castro’s image looks like a landscape, a watery sun setting to the left of a mountain, the moon just beginning to appear on the right. Open them again and you see the gunman precariously balanced as he prepares to kill. 

A fighter of Syrian Democratic Forces takes up a position inside a house in Raqqa, Syria, October 1, 2017.    REUTERS/Erik de Castro

We often read reports of troops massing prior to a battle but rarely do we get to see a great picture to match them. Armoured vehicles with brightly coloured flags fluttering in bright sunshine give the initial feel of a vintage car rally, a feeling that quickly dissipates as the compositional line between the smoke and the sky, mirrored by the line of telegraph poles on the left, race us to the vanishing point on the horizon where smoke rises from the battle.     

Shi’ite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Iraqi army members gather on the outskirts of Hawija Iraq, October 4, 2017.

The clash of El Nabout canes, traditional clothing, strong shadows and an inconvenient lamp post combine to make a picture that intrigues. Mohamed Abd El Gheny’s affectionate picture of men taking part in an ancient martial art that is now a dance form provided one of the visual surprises of the week. The slight tilt to the image and the shadows leading to the lamp post enables its warm brown colour and harsh line to contribute to the shape of the picture instead of destroying it.

Abdu El Kholy and Hamdey El Hamed dance with their El Nabout canes as they perform Tahteeb, an ancient form of martial arts and dance, in the evening light in Sohag, Egypt, September 19, 2017.   REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

A picture’s beauty can be doubled when someone is smiling. When that person is Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I think the effect is fourfold. Mike Hutchings captures Tutu celebrating his birthday in one of the warmest and most affectionate pictures I have seen in weeks. The laugher is infectious, as the figure behind Tutu seems to have a wide grin too.   

Archbishop Demond Tutu laughs as crowds gather to celebrate his birthday by unveiling  an arch built in his honour outside St Georges's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, October 7, 2017.   REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

A slightly bizarre image by Erik de Castro who is covering the fighting in Raqqa, Syria, caught my eye. Why anyone would carefully lay out the uniform of an ISIS fighter on a stairwell is slightly beyond me, especially when a single boot is added to the bottom step? It’s almost as if a political comment is being made, the body and air has been squeezed out of ISIS as the SDF advance on their last strong holds in Raqqa. More pictures here.

A uniform of a member of Islamic State militants is pictures as it was displayed by the Syrian Democratic Forces at their positions inside a building at the frontline in Raqqa, Syria, October 6, 2017.   REUTERS/Erik de Castro

When it ‘rains on your parade’ the day is often spoiled, but quite the opposite happened here for Thierry Gouegnon, who turned a downpour at a campaign rally to his advantage. First, keeping dry, Thierry has used his shelter and those people close to him to frame his picture of women dancing in the torrential rain. What I also like is that I am unsure if it’s taken at night with strong stage lights illuminating the scene, or the light has been created by the sun bursting through the storm clouds. 

Supporters of Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Liberia Vice President and the candidate of Unity Party’s (UP), attend their party’s presidential campaign rally in Monrovia, Liberia, October 7, 2017.    REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

How could I resist highlighting this sweeping landscape, where the zigzag of hundreds of marching people seem to morph into the distant mountain ranges and then beyond to the  clouds. Photographer Ronen Zvulun makes an epic action picture that I am sure Western film director John Ford would have admired.

Palestinian and Israeli women march, as part of an event organised by ‘Women Wage Peace’ group calling for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, near the Jordan River, in the occupied West Bank October 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun 

Middle East and Africa A Week in Pictures 20 August 2017

A quiet moment in a city under siege in Bassam Khabieh’s picture from Douma in Syria. The body language of the boy is as sad and somber as the grays of the wall behind him, the bricks on the ground left and right of the image keeping the rhythm of the composition that is built up by the position of the figures and the pillars in the wall. The only warm colour in the picture is the headdress of the man looking down at his grandson, the affection and warmth on his face slowly coming to the fore of the image.

A child sits next to his grandfather in Douma, near Damascus, Syria, August 14, 2017.    REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh

The Egyptian Cup Final between Al Masry and Al Ahly in Alexandria, was a quiet affair, not that the sport was not competitive, the winner scored in extra time, but because no fans were allowed to attended due to violence at previous fixtures. You can almost hear the ref’s whistle pierce the near silence in Amr Dalsh’s eerie picture of the floodlit pitch surrounded by empty seats.   

A general view of match action during the Egyptian Cup Final between Al Masry and Al Ahly in Alexandria, Egypt August 15, 2017.    REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

I am not a great fan of sunset pictures or silhouettes but Zohra Bensemra's perfectly timed picture of a boy diving into a canal caught my eye this week. The body of the boy appearing to make a horizontal bridge across the canal, his fingers seem to reach out to disturb the calm of the waters before the splash we all know is going to happen. What is most intriguing for me is that this peaceful captured moment is close to the city of Raqqa where a battle rages on.  

A boy cools off in an irrigation canal on the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria, August 16, 2017.    REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

With reports of hundreds being buried in a landslide in Sierra Leone Nigeria based photographer Afolabi Sotunde was at the scene within 24 hours. Rescue workers looking for survivors and recovering bodies. Afolabi's picture of fresh graves being dig for the victims stretch from the foreground of the picture to the horizon giving the viewer a real sense of the large numbers involved in this tragedy. The longer you look at the picture the more graves you see with grim faced workers going about their solemn business, a sad and poignant picture. 

Workers are seen digging graves at Paloko cemetery in Waterloo, Sierra Leone August 17, 2017.   REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

From a very large series of pictures based on recycling this week I could not resist picking out Thierry Gouegnon’s image of a woman carrying utensils made from recycled metal. The brutal vertical line of the corner of the building, almost cutting the picture in half, gives it a mirror image feeling. I love it that the woman’s foot almost touches this imaginary line; and if it did it would break the mirror-like spell. Looking at the position of the people in the frame, especially the person on the right, what also springs to mind, is a still taken on 360 VR where you can see front and back at the same time. 

A woman walks with kitchen tools made of recycled sheet metal in a recycling area in Anoumambo, Abidjan, Ivory Coast August 17, 2017.    REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

A simple detail picture by Afolabi Sotunde demonstrates the force with which flood waters and mud swept through homes in Pentagon, near Freetown, Sierra Leone.  As you take in the sharp contrast between the white exterior wall and debris crammed against the bars of the window, it dawns on you what little chance of survival the occupants had.

Debris is seen inside the window of a house along the valley after a flash flood at Pentagon, Regent Town, Sierra Leone August 18, 2017.   REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

A captured expression, no matter how old the subject, can reveal innermost thinking, which is the essence of great portrait photography.  There is little doubt in my mind what this baby is thinking in Amr Abdullah Dalsh’s picture during baby swimming lessons. This involves dunking the babe’s under the water, counter intuitive to me, but apparently it teaches them to hold their breath, enables them to sleep better and improves their flexibility.  Intrigued? If so read on here.

An Egyptian baby boy his held by his father before taking part in swimming lessons, the first of its kind, in Cairo, Egypt August 15, 2017.   REUTERS/Amr Abdulalh Dalsh