A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, September 6, 2019.

A lucky accident for Siphiwe Sibeko, as I can’t imagine for a minute that this hand creeping into the frame was planned. The playful game with scale and perspective grabs you, giving the impression that a giant hand is reaching out to grab unsuspecting locals on their way home from a hard day at work.

A hand of a local is seen as people returning from work walk along the beach, with the city skyline in the background ahead of pope Francis’ visit to Maputo, Mozambique, September 2, 2019.    REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Leading you from the foreground to the destroyed building in the rear of Mohamed al-Sayaghi’s picture is a medic, walking with his head bowed along a line of covered bodies. The shape of the clouds seems to burst back over the building like an echo of the blast that destroyed it. Mohamed has many other far more brutal images of dead bodies half covered and crushed in the rubble but none as poignant as this one.

A Red Crescent medic walks next to bags containing the bodies of victims of Saudi-led airstrikes on a Houthi detention centre in Dhamar, Yemen, September 1, 2019.    REUTERS/Mohamed as-Sayaghi

Two things strike me as I look at Ali Owidha’s picture of the funeral in Yemen. The first is the symmetrical shape to it, the coffin bearers centered between the two lines of soldiers forming the guard of honour, only the lack of synchronization of the marching soldiers breaking the momentary mirror illusion. And the second, the position Ali must be in to take this picture. Take a moment to think what it takes to get yourself at this low angle, to take the picture and then leave without getting in the way (remember this is a military funeral) or being trampled on.     

Honour guards carry the coffin of a Yemeni army officer killed in the southern province of Abyan in clashes with UAE-backed southern separatist forces, in Marib, Yemen, August 31, 2019.   REUTERS/Ali Owidha

Visually the World Economic Forum in Africa would not be on the top of your list for potential good news photography but Sumaya Hisham has worked hard to get herself into a position to shoot an intriguing image of a politician sitting in a chair. No matter how hard I look at it I can’t quite work out what is going on in the chaos of the right side of the image, or how the refection works. Normally too, showing eyes closed would kill an image as it gives the unfair impression that the politician is asleep, which they are not. In this case the closed eyes create a sense of considered calm around a swirl of visual chaos. 

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa speaks during a session of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, September 4, 2019.   REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham

At first glance Aziz Taher’s picture looks two dimensional, almost abstract and quite painterly. Then the vehicle in the foreground snaps into focus and wow! you get the sense of scale.    

A view of burnt areas from Israeli shelling is seen in Maroun Al-Raz village, near the border with Israel, in southern Lebanon, September 2, 2019.    REUTERS/Aziz Taher

A stark line cuts through the landscape in Baz Ratner’s drone picture of deforestation in Madagascar. The curve of the road seems to sweep around to envelop the living trees, as though it’s leading the slow and unstoppable march of dead and burned tress to consume all that is living. Very sad. You can see the full story here.

Burnt trees are seen in Menabe Antimena protected area near the city of Morondava, Madagascar, September 1, 2019.   REUTERS/Baz Ratner 

The xenophobic attacks in both South Africa and Nigeria are quite disturbing but I am really drawn to Siphiwe Sibeko’s well observed image of people making the most of a bad situation. The burned-out vehicle is being taken for scrap, like hunters taking home their kill. Bad for the vehicle owner but good for the surprise windfall of scrap metal for these dealers. A detail I really like is the backward glance of the man pulling the truck, his blue cap matching the colour of the roof and sign in the background.  

Scrap metal collectors transport a shell of a burnt-out car after Xenophobic attacks that took place earlier this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, September 5, 2019.   REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

Mike Hutchings picture may have been taken in 2008 but it’s a fitting obit picture to mark the death of former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe. Love him or hate him, Mugabe was a powerful leader with global impact and Mike’s picture exudes that strength through the use of deep shadows and exposing for the highlights. It never ceases to amaze me what image defines a person’s life be they world famous or just known to family and friends. Everyone has an image of a person who has died in their mind’s eye. You can see the full obituary package here.   

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe watches a video presentation during the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg, August 2017, 2008.   REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

One does not associate Mozambique with cold damp weather but travelling photographer Yara Nadi has captured Pope Francis hunched up against the inclement conditions. What she has also captured is the warmth and energy of the people crowded in the background trying to get a glimpse of the pontiff. Look at each face - although they are bundled up against the weather - there is no mistaking that everyone is smiling. I would so love the blue W on the bottom right of the image to not be there - a distraction that you need to wrestle with – but the world is not perfect so I will have to live with it.  You can see more from the Pope’s visit to Mozambique here. 

Pope Francis arrives for holy Mass on a rainy day at Zimpeto stadium in Maputo, Mozambique, September 6, 2019.   REUTERS/Yara Nardi

A week in Pictures Middle East and Africa February 1, 2019

After months of deliberation the Lebanese have formed a unity government. Not an easy assignment for Mohamed Azakir other than the standard headshot of a politician at a podium especially when outside the weather is a light drizzle. But unbeknown to Mohamed he’s not only made one but in my mind several nice pictures. On the original crop that moved to the wire I quite like the blue at the top of the frame, expecting it to be a political phrase; but it’s not, it’s the name of the company who created a hoarding, so my view is to crop it out. The orange bag is also a distraction so maybe nice to crop that out too leaving us with the graphic shape of the umbrella between the face and hand. But if you do that you loose the stride of the figure and the position of his feet, which are key to the original image, so maybe a vertical crop. Below are all possible crops, you chose. I think I prefer the third version with no blue banner and no legs.

A man holding an umbrella walks past a banner of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri in Beirut, Lebanon, February 1, 2019. Mohamed Azakir

I actually like chaos and the opportunity it brings to make pictures and for things to happen. Afolabi Sotunde took full advantage of the chaotic scenes of protesters of opposing sides demonstrating in Abuja and an unlucky policeman trying to keep them apart. The hands and feet all jumping about give this image quite a friendly and almost celebratory feeling. But we all know that at any minute things can take a turn for the worse, so there is an underlying feeling of tension.       

A Nigerian police officer tries to disperse protesters, both supporting and opposing the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria Walter Onnoghen, in Abuja, Nigeria, January 28, 2018. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Some pictures are a ‘slow burn’ before they begin to grab your attention. Ahmed Jadallah’s image of worshippers in UAE is one such picture. A first glance a well-lit picture of people in shadow with minarets in the background, an easy up and down, left to right composition to draw your eye along the image. It’s then that you spot the Christian statue of the Virgin Mary in a shrine in the Muslim setting, which raises the question ‘what’s going on?’ The answer, it’s a preview to Pope Francis’ visit to the UAE. Photographing an event before it starts is never easy, so this gentle picture is a little special.

Expat worshippers prays in front of St Mary’s shrine at the St. Mary Catholic church in Oud Metha, as Catholics wait for the visit by pope Francis to the United Arab Emirates in Dubai, UAE, January 18, 2019.   REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

There’s always something a little comic and maybe a little yukky about feet sticking out of the end of the bed, especially when they belong to someone who is over 3000 years old. Mohamed Abd El Ghany didn’t waste a minute playing to our preconceived ideas when he took this wonderful picture, you just can’t stop looking. You can see more here.

The mummy of the boy pharaoh King Tutankhamen is on display in his newly renovated tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt January 31, 2019.   REUTERS/ Mohamed Abd El Ghany

There is no mistaking the anguish on the boy’s face in Ibraheem Abu Mustafa’s picture as the child screams, blood streaming from his eye socket. You don’t need to be an optician to know that he is likely to blinded in that eye. If that imagery is not strong enough on its own, the juxtaposition of the man in the shirt that reads ‘Shit happens’ compounds the sense that for sure shit does happen and it’s often sad. Ibraheem followed up on the boy and his recovery, which offers no solace or happy ending and can be seen here

Wounded Palestinian boy Mohammad An-Najjar, 12, is evacuated during a protest at the Israeli-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza strip, January 11, 2019.   REUTERS/Ibraheem Abd Musta

I like graphic shapes and lines in a picture, even better if there is vast areas of powerful strong tones or colour that leads your eye to the tiniest detail. Zohra Bensemra’s bridge picture ticks all those visual boxes. Your eye is rushed along the new black road surface by the solid white line, not stopping for a second as you zoom past the past the man to the tiny solitary car on the bridge on the distant horizon. Take a second more and you notice the wonderful detail of the smallest of highlights between road and vehicle. We are left breathless.

A man walks along the newly inaugurated Sene-Gambia bridge that links Gambia’s south and north banks in Farafenni-Soma, Gambia January 25, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

As an antidote to this breathtaking speed I have added the calm ripples of a gentle current that bends the lines of refection in a second image from Zohra from the same bridge. Now breathe out.

A general view of the newly inaugurated Sene-Gambia bridge that links Gambia’s south and north banks in Farafenni-Soma, Gambia January 25, 2019.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

I can’t stop my eye from darting all over Afolabi Sotunde’s picture as the more I look the more I see. The warmth and richness of the colour vying for attention, circled and checkered cloth, faces half obscured with strong shadows from the harsh light or modest glances away from the camera; faded and peeling election posters on a metal corrugated hut, the bright reds of clothing in the mid ground on the left and a second queue of women on the right. And then, finally, to the symmetrical brown roofed building in the distance. I don’t think Afolabi could have crammed any more details into this picture if he tried. Read on here

Women queue for relief at the Teachers’ Village IDP camp in Maiduguri, Nigeria, January 16, 2019.  REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde 

An easy link from Afolabi’s picture above to the complex visual composition of Khaled Abdullah’s picture from Yemen as vibrant colours and harsh light fight for your attention. It takes a little while before you notice the small boy, but once you do see him no matter how hard the colours and light fight for your attention you can’t pull yourself away from the look in this child’s eye.

A boy looks as a woman holds bread she has just made outside her hut at a makeshift camp of internally displaced people near Sanaa, Yemen January 28, 2019.   REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah 

There is a buzz to be heard on the Israeli political landscape as Benny Gantz throws his hat into the ring before the country’s elections. Faced with the challenge of finding an interesting picture to illustrate a good breaking story that is visually arid Amir Cohen has cleverly combined a billboard poster with a street sign. It’s both visually effective and confusing, so to help you fathom it out I’ve added a second picture (that plays with reds and blues) to explain how the first was shot. I feel a little guilty - as if I’m revealing a magician’s secret to their trick.

A part of a campaign billboard of Benny Gantz, a former Israel armed forces chief and the head of a new political party, Israel Resilience, can be seen in Tel Aviv, Israel January 29, 2019.   REUTERS/Amir Cohen 

A campaign billboard of Benny Gantz, a former Israel armed forces chief and the head of a new political party, Israel Resilience, can be seen in Tel Aviv, Israel January 29, 2019.   REUTERS/Amir Cohen