It appears to the rest of the world that Kenya is struggling
as the two main political parties wrestle for power in the lead-up to a second
election after the first was declared void. Baz Ratner’s pictures of a plus size
fashion show was a visual antidote to the daily diet of bloody street clashes.
There is sheer joy on the faces of the women as they walk the catwalk in the latest
Kenya fashions. I love how the light of the show changes from a cool blue on
the right to hot reds on the left and you can almost hear the booming music.
Models pose on the catwalk during a plus size fashion show
in Nairobi, Kenya October 7, 2017.
REUTERS/Baz Ratner
If ever a picture needed the health and safety
warning “don’t try this at home”, it must surely be Mohamed Abd El Ghany’s
picture of Egyptian fans celebrating their team qualifying for the 2018 Word
Cup Finals. You can image the conversation moments before ‘I’ve got an idea,
let’s all spray flammable gases into the air in a crowd and set fire to it’. A
bad idea resulting in a great picture.
Egyptians celebrate their soccer team’s victory against
Congo that qualifies Egypt for the 2018 World Cup, in Cairo, Egypt October 7,
2017. REUTERS/ Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Libya-based photographer Hani Amara’s picture of
migrants sent a chill down my spine. At first, all we see is dozens of people
sitting in perfect rows in a fenced-off area. Then we notice that more people
are joining their ranks on the right, peeling off in strict order. What we
can’t see is how many more will join, but I get the sense that this line of
human tragedy is endless.
Migrants sit at a detention centre in Gharyan, Libya,
October 12, 2017.
Even though Abdullah Dhiaa Al-deen’s picture was
taken last August it was only published this week and so it qualifies to be included
in pictures of the week (I set the rules anyway and they are there to be bent.)
Abdullah worked on this in-depth story for weeks, and from the whole series I
like this image the most. To me the calm and beauty of the scene seems as
timeless as the turban is long. The delicate material held by the men draws you
slowly into the picture towards the graceful arches, the eye pausing to take in
the complexity of the floor’s design. The whole picture story, published on the
Wider Image that can be seen here.
A Shi’ite cleric holds a turban at al-sayed al-Yazdo school
run by al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya in Najaf, Iraq August 12, 2017. For more than 1000
years the al-Hawza al-Ilmiyya in southern Baghdad has been giving religious
instructions to thousands of Shi’ite Muslims to help them become clerics. REUTERS/ Abdullah Dhiaa Al-deen
Most of the time I believe that a picture has a
natural crop, which might be captured by the camera in the purist Cartier
Bresson sense or might need to be cropped by an editor with an eye to bringing
out the best. On rare occasions some pictures just need to be seen in two different
ways. Baz Ratner’s image is one of these. You immediately ask yourself ‘what is
going on here?’ Cropped wide you see a man in a car consumed by white gas, the
colour of which matches the paintwork. The car, the man’s face and arms and the
eerie shadow on the side all add to the bizarre nature of the image. But then
you want to see the man’s face, with his eyes seeming to pop out of his head as
he tries to escape the smoke, his hands flailing about. You choose which you
prefer. You can read the back story to
Baz’s picture here.
An opposition politician of the National Super Alliance
(NASA) coalition, reacts after a gas canister fired by police hits his car
during a protest along a street in Nairobi, Kenya October 13, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
Often the strongest pictures are made when
objects are seen out of their usual context; a boat balanced on a building
after a storm, a Rolls Royce in a swimming pool (it’s only Rock and Roll) and
in this case Ange Aboa’s picture of a plane in the sea. What makes this picture
even stronger is that the rescue is still going on. The man on the right of the
picture desperately seems to call the viewer into the image to help with the
rescue. The waves batter the stricken plane and crash in left to right,
hampering the rescue. The wind so strong you can almost taste the salt water
mixed with the spilled fuel of the plane.
People pull the wreckage of a propeller-engine cargo plane
after it crashed into the sea near the international airport in Abidjan, Ivory
Coast October 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ange Aboa
Photographing a deadly bomb attack in Mogadishu
is never easy. The constant danger of a secondary device targeting rescue
workers and the fear that there may be a follow-up gunman attack means that you
always have to be super careful. You also have to be mindful that you don’t
produce pictures of such horror and gore that they are just un-publishable.
Feisal Omar not only portrays the devastation of the scene -- fire, smoke,
burning vehicles, wreckage and men carrying weapons -- but he also captures the
human element of rescue and survival as the armed men carry the injured to
safety. A very powerful news image.
Somali Armed Forces evacuate their injured colleague from
the scene of an explosion in KM4 Street in the Hodan district of Mogadishu,
Somalia, October 14, 2017.
REUTERS/Feisal Omar
The simple oval composition to Thierry Gouegnon’s picture,
aided by a pointing hand, draws you into the writing in the sand. Immediately you are intrigued; what is going
on and what is causing such intense scrutiny? A game of chance? A plan for some
event? Nope, the Liberia election results as they are announced on the radio. A
fantastic picture that to me sums up the struggles and hopes of one of the world’s
poorest nations as they go to the polls.
Supporters of George Weah, former soccer player and
presidential candidate of Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), note on the
ground presidential election results announced on the radio, in Monrovia,
Liberia October 15, 2017. REUTERS/Thierry
Gouegnon
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