A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa May 24, 2019

Two weeks to go before the Women’s World Cup France 2019 kicks off. Zohra Bensemra’s picture smacks you right in the face as the ball thunders at you, making you want to duck. Once you realise you are not going to be hit you notice that the ball looks like a giant head, the player’s body perfectly positioned so the illusion appears real. Once your mind’s eye has finished playing jokes with you, you can enjoy the warm tones of the image, the bright colours, and the fact that football is being enjoyed even though the pitch quality is not as good as it might be. But that just doesn’t matter. You can enjoy the rest of Zohra’s picture story here on the Wider Image.

Gaelle Dule Asheri, 17, a soccer player, who is amongst the first wave of girls being trained by professional coaches at the rails Foot Academy, plays football with her friends outside her house in Yaounde, Cameroon, May 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s picture caught my eye and I’ve thought mmm that’s nice and then moved on. I’ve then been drawn back to it again, but can’t quite put my finger on why. Maybe it’s the harsh warm light that gives the colours their richness, or the strong shadows that define the features of the man who looks you in the eye. Or maybe it’s just the strong zigzag composition that draws you through the fruit market, in and out of the shadows and highlights.

Palestinian shoppers walk in a market in Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip may 21, 2019.  REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

At first glance, Khalil Ashawi’s picture is one of gentle tranquility; a child with a beautiful shock of blond hair highlighted by the rich blue in the foreground sleeps peacefully. This peace is then disturbed as you notice dozens of flies and mosquitoes around the child’s nose and mouth. The blue that initially added a cool calm colour turns out to be a ragged tent in a temporary refugee camp. Read on here. 

A displaced Syrian child sleeps on a mat laid out on the floor in an olive grove in the town of Atmeh, Idlib Province, Syria May 19, 2019.   REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Viewers of Mohamed Abd El Ghany’s wonderful picture would go completely unnoticed as people busily get on with the well-deserved business of breaking their fast. All hands, eyes and mouths are focused on eating and drinking. I can’t imagine much talking going on even though the whole community of friends, family and neighbours have all come together. That no doubt will come later when stomachs are full and thirsts quenched.   

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo’s Mataria district gather to eat Iftar, the meal to end their fast at sunset, during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo Egypt, May 20, 2019.   REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

I can’t help thinking of the painter Lowry when looking at Anne Mimault’s well- balanced and nicely timed picture. The figures occupy their own individual space against the backdrop of the flat walls of the church, which lead you into the picture, a visual movement aided by the angle of the bent arms on the left of the frame. Take the time to enjoy the shapes and space in the picture and then read on here about the horrors these people have faced. Read on here.

Protestants, some of whom fled Dablo and its surroundings leave a church after a service in the city of Kaya, Burkina Faso, May 16, 2019.    REUTERS/Anne Mimault

Bleached of nearly all colour, Sumaya Hisham’s strong political portrait looks like a still from a film noir. The empty space either side of the cameo profile is just begging for text to be laid out on the page. If I were to seek perfection, I’d like the lips not to be slightly clipped by a dark shape in the foreground. But the perfect often eludes us, so I am more than happy with this.   

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks to the media after parliament formally elected him as State President in Cape Town South Africa, May 22, 2019.    REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

Zohra Bensemra’s picture is a collection of well-composed triangles in a landscape that is hard to understand. Where and what is this place? Why are the colours so strange? What is this person doing? No pun intended, but the icing on the cake is the perfect position of the foot, poised in the classic step position. Read on here, all questions answered.

An employee who works for Marie Diouf, aka salt Queen, harvests salt at a production site in Ndiemou on the outskirts of Fatick, Senegal, May 15, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra 

And a couple more pictures because I like them  

A firefighting aircraft flies over a forest as firefighters put out a fire near Kibbutz Harel, which was damaged by wildfires during a record heat wave in Israel May 24, 2019.   REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun 

A family prepares bread at their house in Egypt’s Nile Delta village of El Shakhluba, in the province of Kaft el-Sheikh, Egypt may 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Hayam Adel

A Week in Pictures Middle East and Africa March 8, 2019

I wanted to share Baz Ratner's wonderful cameo portrait in yesterday's initial edit but as the selection was quite large I decided to exclude it. Having slept on this decision I have changed my mind. The colours and the strong shape of her profile had actually haunted my dreams. Not much I can add as the simplistic beauty of this portrait speaks for itself, except I would have loved a slight crop on the left to remove mark in the background. You can see the full story here

Kenyan model Aiuma Nassanyana waits behind the scenes before the fashion show showcasing African fashion and culture during a gala to launch the book 'African Twilight: The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent' at the African Heritage House in Nairobi, Kenya March 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Baz Ratner

It would be wrong for me to include only one image from Rodi Said, who is in Syria near Baghouz waiting for the last Islamic State enclave to fall, so I’ve chosen three. In the first image it’s the catchlight of the warm late sunlight above the shadows that highlights the look on the boy’s face as he looks out from the shelter of the queue of women. No matter how hard you look he is giving none of his thoughts away. Maybe that’s a good thing for us but a bad thing for him as who knows what this child has witnessed. Latest here

A boy looks out from a queue of waiting women near Baghouz, Deir Al Zor Province, Syria, March 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Rodi Said

Not the most beautiful image I have selected but  certainly one of the most subtly poignant. The focus of the image is created by the clever crop of the truck that leads the viewer’s eye straight to the children in the back of the speeding vehicle. Their gaze takes to you the line of people in the mid distance. The captions reveals that the recently freed are now looking across at their former captors,  who are now prisoners themselves.  

Children from the Yazidi community, who were recently freed after being captured by Islamic State fighters, ride on the back of a truck near Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria, March 6, 2019.    REUTERS/Rodi Said

It takes a little for you sort out what is going on in Rodi’s picture as your eye darts from pile to pile of scattered clothing and blankets. You finally notice the grey hood of child sitting looking at the makeshift bed. It’s only then you see the child with the pink hat leaning on their mother. Once in the core of this image you cannot draw away.   

Children sit next to their injured mother near the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province in Syria March 7, 2019.   REUTERS/Rodi Said

Who has not, as child, thrown food up into the air to catch it in your mouth? And sometimes the game is extended to throwing sweets and food for others to catch in their mouth, the simple joy of a “catch” more than a little pleasing. It is this basic sense of joy that draws me to Samar Abo Elouf’s picture from Gaza, captured perfectly in environmental portrait style, hands throwing up nuts, eyes focussed and mouths wide open. To see the full story if girls living in Gaza click here.

Fatma Youssef, 17, a Palestinian high school student and horse rider and her friend catch nuts in their mouths at their school in Gaza City, February 7, 2019. REUTERS/Samar Abo Elouf

A simple portrait beautifully shot by Hayam Adel using the strong window daylight to sidelight his subject and the warm tungsten lighting of the lamp to give the background a warm glow. Crossed curves of light used to their best effect.  You can see the whole story about global maternity leave here.

Nahla Mohamed Abdel Rahman, 37, a professor at faculty of applied arts, hold her three-month-old baby Younis, at their house after her first week back at work, in Cairo, Egypt, February 22, 2019.   REUTERS/Hayam Adel

The composition of Khalid al-Mouslily’s picture zooms you at speed along the muddy and battle-damaged street to the vanishing point on the distant horizon, not a yard of this journey untouched by the conflict. When you return to the foreground of the image you see the three lonely figures walking through this barren cityscape, trying to pull their lives back together. 

Marwa Khalid, 28, walks with her children, Mustafa and Muhaymen, in the old city of Mosul, Iraq March 3, 2019.   REUTERS/Khalid al-Mouslily

Although the march was attended by hundreds of people I like this single act of defiance in Zohra Bensemra’s picture. It’s not clear if this woman is taking pictures of herself within the demonstration or whether she is shooting pictures of the demonstration itself, but she looks determined and powerful even though the perspective of the image dwarfs her against the riot policeman. Her action of shooting pictures with her phone is clearly defined against the clean background, making it the focal point of the image. This clarity of shape contrasts with the confusion of the busy reflections in the riot shield in the foreground.  

A lawyer holds up her mobile phone near a police member as she marches with others to the constitutional council during a protest to denounce an offer by President Bouteflika to run in elections next month but not to serve a full term if re-elected, in Algiers, Algeria March 7, 2019.  REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra  

A regular line of blue helmets and black uniforms cut through a crowd of protesters cutting the image in half, a perfect illustration of the saying “thin blue line” – the separation between order and disorder - in Ramzi Boudina’s picture. I can’t help feeling a sense of unease when looking at it. I am not experienced in crowd control but I would have thought that for effective policing, ideally a police line should not be completely surrounded, no matter how peaceful the crowd?   

Students take part in a protest to denounce an offer by President Bouteflika to run in elections next month but not to serve a full term if re-elected, in Algiers, Algeria March 7, 2019.  REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina  

I am a great fan of detail pictures that tease you and draw you into a story and make you want to know more. Raneen Sawafta’s will be a pull for anyone interested in film; not only because it’s almost a sin for film to be on the floor in the grit and dirt and will send a shudder down the spine of most, but because once you have got over the initial shock of this, you will want to know more about the green ticket. You can find out here

Film strips and a ticket ae seen on the ground in a former cinema in Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank February 24, 2019.    REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta

And really there is no other reason for adding Amir Cohen’s image to the week’s selection than that it’s a moment of simple joy captured in a perfect balance of light and intrigue. When was the last time you did a headstand when taking your dog out for a walk? And imagine the odds of doing that and having it captured by an international photographer of Amir’s calibre.

A woman does a headstand along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Ashkelon, Israel March 2, 2019.    REUTERS/Amir Cohen

And lastly, our talented and cherished colleague Yannis Behrakis died last week after a year-long battle with cancer. What he has left is an amazing legacy of powerful news pictures that can be seen here    

A Syrian refugee kisses his daughter as he walks through a rainstorm towards Greece’s border with Macedonia near the Greek village of Idomeni September 10, 2015.   REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis