A Week in Pictures Middle East & Africa, June 8, 2018

Being hit with a tear gas canister is terrifying but being hit with a tear gas canister that embeds itself in your face must be truly awful. Ibraheem’s Abu Mustafa’s picture of a man with tear gas still pouring from the canister in his face is quite disturbing but something I just can’t stop looking at as I have never seen the like before. Ibraheem followed up with him and you can see the story here 

A wounded Palestinian demonstrator is hit in the face with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during a protest marking al-Quds day (Jerusalem Day), at the Israeli-Gaza border in the southern Gaza strip June 8, 2018.   REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Next week the world’s attention will be on Russia and the World Cup. As a preview to the football tournament, Wider Image have pulled together a global project on unusual places the game is played. Contributions from Africa were very strong but in choosing one I have to settle on Siphiwe Sibeko’s offering as my favourite. The light is beautiful and I just love those yellow trousers in the low sun at full stretch and the red ball. See the set of pictures from around the world here. 

A combination picture shows boys playing soccer and details of a football, a pitch and shoes, at a makeshift pitch in Soweto, South Africa, May 14, 2018.   REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

I can’t help but smile when looking at Ammar Awad’s picture of a vendor grabbing a fish from the tank. Do you also think that the two fish slightly on the right are gasping, opened mouthed ‘phew lucky this time, not me!’ What I also love about this picture is the colour and tone. The warm orange/yellow colours of the arm in the water against the cool blue colours of the fish

A vendor holds a fish at a market in Amman, Jordan June 6, 2018.   REUTERS/Ammar Awad

There is no mistaking for even a second what the pull is for Mohamed Torokman’s picture: it’s the perfect shadow, the great lines in the picture and the shape of the man’s body climbing the rickety ladder. The shadow of the barbed wire snaking down from the top of the frame is an added bonus.

A Palestinian uses a ladder to climb over a section of the controversial Israeli barrier as he tries to make his way to attend Friday prayer of the Holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, near Ramallah in the occupied west bank June 8, 2018.  REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Wissam al-Okili’s picture is one that makes me want to scratch my head and wonder why the people in the picture are doing what they are doing. I just keep on looking and wondering, unable to pull myself away from this image. Eighteen people killed and over 90 injured in the blast and these young men are sitting on this half-buried car as if it’s garden furniture. Maybe it’s the contrast between the landscape of sheer devastation and the nonchalant relaxed manner of the men that gives this image its strength as you wonder ‘Wow! What happened here?’ If you want to know read on here

People gather at the site of an explosion in Baghdad’s Sadr City district, Iraq, June 7, 2018.    REUTERS/Wissam al-Okili

Jordan’s new Prime Minister Razzaz is being squeezed between the demands of the IMF trying to put the Jordan economy back on track with austerity measures and the demands of the people protesting on the streets because they can’t make ends meet. Muhammad Hamed’s picture seems to sum up all his problems in a single frame. 

Jordan’s designated new Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz speaks on the phone after leaving parliament building in Amman, Jordan June 7, 2018.  REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

 The newly repaired road cuts through the hills dotted with destroyed buildings from which a stream of vehicles seem to flow downhill. What catches my eye first in Omar Sanadiki’s picture is that it’s such a great shape. It also took me a while to realise what is a little strange: the traffic is moving in the same direction, towards the viewer on both sides of the road.  

Vehicles travel on the road between Homs and Hama after it was re-opened in Rastan, Syria June 6, 2018.   REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

Imagine the world viewed through the single constant of a goalpost

Sometimes the best ideas are also the simplest ones, especially when you have the support of the world’s biggest news agency behind you. 

Children play soccer on a playing field in Kirtipur, Kathmandu May 31, 2014. The 2014 Brazil World Cup opens on June 12 and fans around the globe are gearing up for the big tournament. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

Inspired by the energy generated by a Wider Image workshop with our photographers in South America, I wanted to work on a global story about the Brazil 2014 World Cup. So many superlatives are used to describe it: the world’s greatest show, the most watched tournament, the biggest sporting event.

A goalpost is painted on a wall at a house used as a creche in Ciudad Juarez June 3, 2014. The 2014 Brazil World Cup opens on June 12 and fans around the globe are gearing up for the big tournament. But soccer lovers are not only preparing to watch the world's best professional players battle it out on the pitch; they are also out there kicking a ball about themselves. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

I needed a big idea that could demonstrate the worldwide reach of football (or soccer, for our U.S readers) and I wanted to include our global team of busy photographers. For them to find the time to get involved, the idea had to be simple. 

I once heard that the rules of football are among the most universally recognised codes in the world.  They transcend divides of creed, culture, education, geography and wealth. Off-side is off-side no matter who you are, or what your nationality. And what is football actually about? It’s about goals.

And what is a goal? That moment of ecstatic joy, crushing defeat, a game won, lost or drawn (unless it’s a dull 0-0). Lucky, unlucky, frequently contentious, always an event. Maybe it should have been a goal and was disallowed, maybe it shouldn’t have been but was counted anyway. Goals can signify millions of dollars won or lost or invested in the business of football. They can mean winning or losing a bet. 

A makeshift soccer goalpost stands near Molweni, west of Durban June 5, 2014. The 2014 Brazil World Cup opens on June 12 and fans around the globe are gearing up for the big tournament. But soccer lovers are not only preparing to watch the world's best professional players battle it out on the pitch; they are also out there kicking a ball about themselves. Reuters photographers on every continent, in countries from China to the Czech Republic, went out to capture images of soccer goalposts used by players to practise the 'beautiful game'. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

And what is an actual physical goal? FIFA’s rules are strict, but simple: “The distance between the posts is 7.32 m (8 yds) and the distance from the lower edge of the crossbar to the ground is 2.44 m (8 ft)… Both goalposts and the crossbar have the same width and depth, which do not exceed 12 cm (5 ins).”

I read this, and an idea came to me. Imagine the world viewed through the single constant of a goalpost: the green grass and cloudy skies of Manchester, the dusk in Karachi, a cityscape in Boston, Kathmandu and Tokyo. I checked with a colleague to see  that this was not a daft idea. He loved it.

I knew that to get what I was looking for I needed to apply some structure. Experience has told me that photographers, on the whole rightly so, tend to follow their own ideas better than they follow those of others (no disrespect team, but it is as it is). 

I set some guidelines: a 24mm lens should be used, the pictures should be shot from the distance of the penalty spot (FIFA rules) and the camera should be at a height of 2 ft, from behind or in front, whatever looked better. My “goal” was to ensure that the position of the goalposts in the picture frame was a constant. I even shot a picture myself to explain what I wanted. What guide could be simpler to stick to?

Some followed the instructions to the letter, a few ignored some of them, and an elite handful completely made up their own rules. I love the result! I hope you do too. Click here to see the pictures