Look at me! Listen to my protest! is the message from this picture from Sudan. The flame licking into the half-light of the evening highlights the protester’s glasses and open mouth so that he takes on the momentary appearance of a fire-breathing dragon. Once your eyes get used to the bright light of the flame you can see the thousands of protesters in the background, stretching into the horizon of the evening gloom.
A Sudanese demonstrator chants slogan as he attends a sit-in protest outside the Defence Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 14, 2019. REUTERS
A big, fun yellow
picture, a big smile, curls of hair and hands emerging from a mist of yellow
powder. The only other real colour is the red mask guiding us to the laughing
eyes of the person on the right. There is no way you can look at this picture
without feeling the warmth of a smile.
A girl is covered in yellow powder during
Egypt’s first Colour Run in Giza Egypt April 13, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Ali Hashisho’s picture has a feeling of a
post-apocalyptic scene as three unidentified figures stand framed in a ruined
building, looking across a cityscape at storm clouds in the distance. Are they
gathering or clearing? The dash of warm sunlight on the broken concrete pillar
to the left gives us some hope.
Children stand together inside a damaged
house in Kobani, Syria April 3, 2019.
REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
Omar Sanadiki’s
pictures need a little text to help explain them. On the face of it, we see ruined
buildings with vegetation. So what? Now understand that this peaceful verdant scene
was recently the scene of fierce fighting in Aleppo, Syria. I include two
images from Omar, because the pictures need some explanation. The most
colourful image, with reds and yellows, just does not have enough buildings to
illustrate the context of the story. So much for the adage ‘a picture paints a
thousand words’. Read on here.
Blossomed vegetation
is seen over damaged buildings and the ancient citadel during a warm day of
spring in the old city of Aleppo, Syria April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
Poppies are seen in full bloom during
spring in Aleppo governorate, Syria April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
What a wonderful picture
by Umit Bektas as he plays with scale and space. Almost a silhouette, but
thankfully not. Your eye is drawn quickly to the figures in the trees, a flag
extended as it is waved back and forth. These men look far too big to be safely
in the tree, and maybe this sense is created by the open space above them or
the line of figures beneath them. See more from Sudan
here
Sudanese
demonstrators wave a flag after climbing a tree outside the Defence Ministry in
Khartoum, Sudan April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Umit
Bektas
It’s just a lot of fun, people hugging,
laughing and enjoying a moment perfectly captured by Luc Gnago as Ivanka Trumps
visits Ivory Coast amid a myriad of dancing shapes, colours, stripes, patterns
and smiles. Normally these visits are very stiff and formal but this breaks the
mould.
White House advisor Ivanka Trump dances as
she meets women entrepreneurs, at the demonstration cocoa farm in Adzope, Ivory
Coast, April 17, 2019. REUTERS/Luc
Gnago
Baz Ratner’s image is a little unsettling. I
think the obvious reason is the figure wearing full bio protective gear walking
behind the woman and the child seemingly unnoticed. What can be going on that
this this gear is needed but there is a child unprotected? This then brings you
to the full-on eye contact from both the woman and the child. You are drawn
into the picture and it’s then you begin to notice that the only natural elements
in this image are the uncovered faces. Plastic gloves, plastic clothing,
plastic mask, plastic background and plastic fencing in the foreground. It all
feels very unnatural and in this environment you are captivated by the eye
contact, and that is unsettling. Why aren’t these people protected too? Read on here to discover the story of those
who survived Ebola caring for children with the killer disease.
Mwamini Kahindo, an Ebola survivor working
as a carer to babies who are confirmed Ebola cases, holds a child outside the
red zone of the Ebola treatment centre in Butembo, Democratic Republic of
Congo, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Baz
Ratner
To describe Mohamed
Abd Al Ghany’s picture of an old book as lush - very rich and providing great
sensory pleasure - might be a step too far but it’s the word I kept coming back
to when looking at this detail picture. The warm tones of the aged pages,
wrinkled with time, make us want to touch the book. The clever crop, so you
can’t see all the book, ensures we spend time looking at the ancient text,
which is quite exquisite. You can see more artefacts and the
restoration project here.
‘Codex Syriacus’, an ancient copy of the
Gospels in Syriac, is seen on display in St. Catherine’s Monastery in South
Sinai, Egypt, March 7, 2019.
REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Hard to ignore the wonderful beam of light
in Ammar Awad’s picture of clergy during Holy Week in Jerusalem. Equally hard
to ignore is the candle-lit procession of worshippers in the Holy City. These pictures
really speak for themselves so I will let them do just that.
Members of the clergy take part in the
Catholic Washing of the Feet ceremony on Easter Holy Week in the church of the
Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Worshippers take part in a procession
during the Catholic Washing of the Feet ceremony on Easter Holy Week in the
church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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