Light streaming through holes into a smoke-filled
workshop is going to work as a picture every time. What Mohammed Salem has done
is to show a worker walking through the rays of light, the timing perfect so
the beams of light don’t cut across his face. Enjoy this peaceful, calm image
of daily toil.
A Palestinian worker carries clay pots as
sun rays penetrate through the ceiling of a pottery workshop in Gaza City June
11, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
In complete contrast of mood, but taken on
the same day as Mohamed’s picture above, the grief in Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s
picture crashes into your consciousness and leaves you with a feeling of desperation
and sadness. The boy’s hand tenderly touches his dead father’s face as he looks
down weeping and distraught, his other hand gripped tight in tension as he is
lifted above the chaos of the funeral. We can only guess at the feelings going
through the boy’s mind, but this sad and powerful moment is captured
forever.
The son of Palestinian paramedic Mohamed
Al-Judaily, who died of wounds he sustained during a protest at the
Israeli-Gaza border fence, reacts as he looks at his father’s body during his
funeral in the central Gaza strip, June 11, 2019. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
I won’t attempt to lift the spirits after
Ibraheem’s picture but will bombard you with more distressing news and raise an
ethical issue with an image from the same day as those above. A village in Mali
was attacked, with the death toll ranging from 35 to nearly 100 depending on
who was citing the numbers. What was agreed is that more than 20 children were killed.
We have images of the dismembered and charred bodies but they are considered
too distressing to publish. To give a sense of the death and destruction we
published this poignant image below, the dead body of a thin farm animal, ashes
all that is left of building. You get a sense of what happened without being
exposed to the grisly images of dead people. It’s always hard to decide what
should be seen in such instances – after all, who wants to see dead children?
Or is this a case that calls for “seeing is believing” and for the publication
of the images? I think not. Read on here
A dead animal is seen amidst the damage at
the site of an attack on the Dogon village of Sobane Da, Mali June 11, 2019. REUTERS/Malick Konate
A very nicely seen image by Baz Ratner at a
mock funeral by environmental activists. You eye is drawn quickly to the clever
black and white logo pasted on a fake black coffin. The only real colour of the
image, the red of the protester’s nail varnish, holds g our attention. Your eye
then moves right in the frame to see her masked face, her eyes serious as she
carries her message.
Greenpeace environmental activist carries a
fake coffin during a protest against the construction of a coal fired electricity
plant in Lamu on Kenya’s coast, during a protest in Nairobi, June 12,
2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
I am a big fan of simple shapes and strong
lines in composition. Add a strong red colour with a hint of complementary
green and the sound of a military band, as Afolabi Sotunde has done, and he
hits all the right buttons. If I was after perfection I would have liked a
little more space on the top right, so the arm of the leading soldier pointed
into the corner of the frame and we would not crop off the small figure, also
in green on the right.
Police officers are seen on parade during
the new Democracy Day, a national holiday in honour of late M.K.O Abiola, in
Abuja, Nigeria, June 12, 2019. REUTERS/Afolabi
Sotunde
Samuel Mambo’s picture structure is all
about sharp edges and it has an eerie feel to it. The clean corner of the wall,
the strong wide V-shape line of the path, the white highlights of the workers’
clothing against the background shadows and, if you look carefully, the fold
lines in the newly opened aprons of the medical staff. Staff are getting ready
to fight Ebola. The uneasy feeling is created by compositionally awkward
position of the figures in the chopped-up space and the man’s gloved hands that
are clasped together, giving the image a pensive feel. Read on here
Ugandan medical staff are seen as they
inspect the Ebola preparedness facilities at the Bwera General Hospital near
the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Bwera, Uganda, June 12,
2019. REUTERS/Samuel Mambo
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