August this year is
the 400th anniversary of the start of the slave trade to North
America. To mark this date one of several stories Reuters is working on are
artefacts from the slave period. Ancient things in cabinets rarely make for
good images but one image that will haunt me, and not because I shot it (a rare
thing these days) is the “Brookes” slave ship illustration. Using a narrow
depth of field, I have tried to single out an individual packed on the boat
with hundreds of others to humanize him. The details in the original drawing are
spectacular. It’s as if every figure is a personal portrait and makes us feel
as if we know them. If this was shot too wide the figures become
unidentifiable, but too tight and you lose the sense of the vast numbers
involved. Read on here.
A section of a print
of the Brookes Slave Ship diagram dated 1791 forms part of the collection in
the Wilberforce House Museum in Hull, Britain, July 5, 2019. According to the
museum the print is arguably one of the most recognisable images from the
campaign to abolish the Transatlantic Slave Trade in Britain. The publication
of this image provided the public with a clear visual representation of
conditions on board slave ships for the first time. August 2019 marks 400 years
when the slave trade to North America began. REUTERS/Russell Boyce
Emerging from a hole
dug by hand, a miner brings up a shovel of earth that may or may not contain
gold. Zohra Bensemra’s picture is as compelling and compassionate as it is
claustrophobic. Every element is there, the perfect shovel shape, the miner’s
lamp on his head, the black and dangerous chasm, and, most importantly, the
glimpse of determination in his eyes. But there is more to this than meets the
eye and that is why it’s taken months to get this story out. The gold comes at
a price - Read on
An Informal gold miner carries a shovel as
he climbs out from inside a gold mining pit at the site of the Nsuaem-Top,
Ghana November 24, 2018. Zohra Bensemra
Bloody and brutal with an eerie sense of
isolation and silence. This is what strikes me most with Afolabi Sotunde’s
image from the clashes in Nigeria. Why is this? Very rarely do you see a dead
body in the street in complete isolation; there are usually emergency services,
other demonstrators or even just bystanders, all usually part of the chaotic deadly
scene.
A member of the Shi’ite movement lies dead
after a Shi’ite movement group set fire to an ambulance and fire engine station
at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria July 22, 2019. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
Bold and simple, great shape, great colour
and ‘mini me’ feel to James Akena’s portrait picture lifts it above the
ordinary. If I were to be really picky I’d like Bobi to be a little smaller in
the frame so you can see both the eyes fully in the image behind him, but I
won’t be picky.
Ugandan musician turned politician. Robert
Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, addresses a news conference at his home in
Kasangati, Kampala, Uganda July 24, 2019.
REUTERS/James Akena
Just because I am a big fan of the quirky,
where objects are in place but out of context - cars in swimming pools, boats on roofs - I
can’t resist armoured vehicles under cool blue water photographed by the Aqaba
Special Economic Zone Authority. Find out why they are underwater here.
Jordanian Armed Forces vehicles lay on the seabed
of the red Sea off the coast of southern port city of Aqaba, as part of a new
underwater military museum, Jordan in this handout picture obtained July 23,
2019. Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority/Handout via REUTERS
Ammar Awad’s mysterious image of smoke
swirling around a building works as the window is just about the only sharp-edged
shape you can see through the soft blur of smoke. This contrast creates a
momentary focal point. If the picture had been taken a little earlier, the
building would not be fully enveloped by the smoke, a moment later, the window would
be obscured and the focal point lost.
Palestinian building is blown up by Israeli
forces in the village of Sur Baher which sits on either side of the Israeli
barrier in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank July 22, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
A great combination sequence picture by
Mussa Qawasma from the same scene as Ammar’s picture above tells the same story
but in a different way. Each element is perfectly captured. With the still
images, every detail can be examined closely. For sure it would be great to see
video of this, but then you would not be able to look at every detail closely, see
what it looked like before, followed by the blast, the smoke and then the
destruction.
A combination picture shows a Palestinian
building as it is blown up by Israeli forces in the village of Sur Baher which
sits on either side of the Israeli barrier in East Jerusalem and the occupied
West Bank July 22, 2019. REUTERS/Mussa
Qawasma
As far as the eye can see there are
football fans surrounding the victory parade bus in Ramzi Boudina’s picture.
Are the arms raised in adoration or is it that just about everyone is holding
up a mobile phone to take pictures and shoot video. Either way it really
doesn’t matter as what it does achieve is to make the bus take on the
appearance of a boat slowly sailing away from white cliffs through a sea of
waving arms.
Football fans surround a bus during a
victory parade to celebrate Algeria winning the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon)
in Algiers, Algeria July 20, 2019.
REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
