A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, January 24, 2020

Baz Ratners’ picture is made up of a wonderful graphic shapes and line all set against striking colour. I love the bleached words that are almost impossible to read. The centre of the image can be digested very quickly, an old railway sign set against an African landscape. But before you move on thinking, okay get it, take a few seconds to search for the boy with the umbrella, if you didn’t already see him. What a delightful visual addition to the image which, on reflection may make you think, okay maybe I don’t get it. If you want to know more read on here for the story published this week that took months to shoot. 

A child holds an umbrella as he stands on the SGR railway tracks near the town of Kiu, south of Nairobi, Kenya, December 16, 2019.    REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Mohamed Azakir’s picture has the feel of a classic picture of a lone Olympic athlete in action, bright colours of red, the wet ground adding shimmer to the light as if in a stadium. But the action - frozen at its peak in front of a crowd - is the only similarity to this momentary illusion. In reality it’s a protester hurling a tear gas canister back at police.   

A demonstrator throws a tear gas canister during a protest against the ruling elite who protesters accuse of steering Lebanon towards economic crisis in Beirut, Lebanon January 18, 2020.   REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

It’s the neon glow of light blurred with a mix of smoke and driving rain that gives the impression of a city on fire in Aziz Taher’s striking picture. I get an immediate feeling of acute tension as a mass of soldiers head off into the distance. This visual movement is countered by the lone figure set against the yellow arches running in the opposite direction. Looking at this picture I want to know, what happened next? 

Smoke rises as Lebanese army soldiers walk towards a protest against the newly formed government in Beirut, Lebanon January 22, 2020.   REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Powerful, brutal, frightening and desperate are all words that can describe Khalid al-Mousily’s picture from the clashes in Iraq. It’s not often I will post a picture of a bloodied corpse but it’s the action around the body, rather than the body itself that creates the power of the image. I feel this emanates strength through what you can’t quite see. It takes a while to see the bloodied face even though the composition of the image directs you it. The men on the wall left and right looking down at the action, the figures below the wall forming a dark pyramid, at the centre of which is the dead man’s face - which you are led to from the line formed by the foot and leg. And once you have seen it and want to look away, the man at bottom right who holds a mobile phone pushes your eye back to the ugly centre. Read on here for Khalid’s back story.   

Iraqi demonstrators carry a man killed during ongoing anti-government protests in Baghdad, Iraq January 21, 2020.   REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily

Raneen Sawafta has used a clever reflection to turn an ordinary scene in flat low light to create an image with a spiritual and musical feel. Even the rhythm of the dark fence posts adds to the sense of dance as the pilgrims, holding hands, move from left to right.

Pilgrims are reflected in a car window as they make their way towards the Jordan River to participate in a baptism ceremony, near Jericho in the Israeli-occupied west bank January 18, 2020.   REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta 

Rice price inflation in Nigeria doesn’t really set the pulse racing in terms of potential for news images but this important story needed to be illustrated. Afolabi Sotunde has shot the story very thoughtfully and I am a great fan of a detail picture when cleverly used to illustrate a complex story. A sliver of light pointing down to the small grains of rice does the job perfectly. If rice prices in Nigeria does get your pulse racing read on here, the pictures are worth the time. 
  

Paddy rice grains are seen in a machine before processing at the Wurukum Rice Mill in Makuerdi, Nigeria December 2, 2019.   REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

An interesting debate to be had about giving offense and reporting fairly what is seen. After a call for a million people to join an anti-U.S. protest in Iraq, many protesters have taken the time to make anti-U.S. banners, posters and even mock gallows, giving Alaa al-Marjani this slight ethical conundrum. What is needed for fair presentation is a variety of images in the file and to photograph what is seen, being careful not to isolate images that are not representative of what is really going on.

Supporters of Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr carry placards depicting U.S President Donald Trump at a protest against the U.S presence in Iraq in Baghdad, Iraq January 24, 2020.  REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani

The commemorations to mark the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps at the World Holocaust Forum produced a tsunami of images as 40 heads of state descended on Jerusalem, some of who also visited the Palestinian Territories. At the end of day it was reported that details of the U.S. peace plan for the Middle East would be announced. So Ammar Awad’s image of the arrival of Vice President Mike Pence quickly changed from being just another arrival image to one of the day’s key images as the news focus shifted.

U.S Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen disembark from a plane upon their arrival at Ben Gurion international Airport to attend the World Holocaust Forum at the Yad Vashem memorial centre, near Tel Aviv, Israel January 23, 2020.   REUTERS/Ammar Awad

A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, January 17, 2010

I could not resist Alaa al-Marjani’s picture from Iraq. It’s full of colour and joy as arms reach up into the swirling coloured smoke that stretches to the back of the image. Compositionally, the picture has the figures well placed on the left, their upturned faces leading us to the abstract patterns in the smoke.

Iraqi women wave coloured smoke candles during the festival of colours, in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq January 15, 2020.   REUTERS/Alaa al-Marjani

A terrific image from Mohamed Azakir that really needs little explanation in terms of content, showing riot police responding with tear gas and baton charges against the demonstrators smashing banks in Beirut. What gives this image such strength is how you feel as you are led left to right across it, from the heat of the yellows and whites to the cool icy blues on the right. Your eye immediately picks out the silhouetted figure in full riot gear, back-lit by the hot glow of a neon light on the left. Next you are drawn towards the mass of riot police. The extended foot gives us the impression they are just starting their march towards the unseen demonstrators. Above them, the Bank of Beirut sign is the focus of the clashes. 

Riot police officers stand behind shields amid a cloud of tear gas during protests against the economic crisis outside a bank of Beirut office in Beirut, Lebanon, January 14, 2020.    REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

It takes more than a little while to work out what is going on in Zohra Bensemra’s picture. You pick out some legs and feet against a mosaic pavement. The bright colours lead your eye to the hand across the folded arm and then you settle on the seated figure on the right. The image has a mixed air of calm, confusion and tension as you can’t quite make out who is who or what is going on. This is intentional as Zohra is hiding the identities of women who have been victims of rape, which was not a criminal offence in Senegal until the start of this year when the law was finally changed. Read on here. 

A youth, 17, who said she was raped by her friend, sits with other women at La Maison Rose, a shelter for women and girls who have fled abuse, rape, forced marriage and other trauma in Dakar, Senegal January 7, 2020.   REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

Hamad Mohammed has waited to frame the car perfectly in the line of light and shadow in the sand. The harsh light has allowed him to expose for the highlights, so the shadows fall in compete black. The tyre tracks in the sand look like ripples in a pool. Wonderful. 

X-Raid Mini JCW Team’s Orlando Terranova and Bernado Graue in action during stage 11 of the Dakar rally Shubaytah to Haradh, Saudi Arabia, January 11, 2020.  REUTERS/Hamad Mohammed

You can almost hear the buzzing of locusts in Njeri Mwangi’s picture as people try to keep the inspects off their grazing lands. The out of focus and fuzzy feel to the image is created by the millions of insects in the air. Spare a minute’s thought and imagine what it would be like trying to shoot pictures in the swam, trying to keep focus, hoping the subjects will run in front of a dark background so the insects stand out, and meanwhile fighting to keep the lens clean, so you can capture the moment. Let alone stopping the locusts from crawling into your clothing. 

Samburu men attempt to fend-off a swarm of desert locusts flying over grazing land in Lemasulani village, Samburu County, Kenya January 17, 2020.   REUTERS/Njeri Mwangi

Crash! Siphiwe Sibeko captures the perfect moment as England’s Joe Root is clean bowled. The ball is still in the frame, the bails in mid-flight, the dust of the ball strike still in mid-air as the batsman flails about, beaten and out. And all this set against a clean background so we can see all the action, with no distractions. 

England’s Joe Root is clean bowled by South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada during the Third test at St Georges park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa January 16, 2020.   REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

I love the symmetric feel to Khalil Ashawi’s picture. The children are almost in height order waiting to get on the bus, teacher book book in hand in the doorway. I can’t help feeling that the children seem to be waiting to escape their desperate world of conflict into a world of leaning and exploration. That sense is maybe created by the smiling images of children on the clean white bus. It could also be that a feeling of escape is also created by the metal container in the background , which looks like a space ship from a 1950's science fiction film. You can read on here.

Students wait in line to attend class inside a bus in the city of al-Bab, Syria January 14, 2020.   REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

A Week in Pictures, Middle East and Africa, January 10, 2020

I was stopped in my tracks by this sad image by Nazanin Tabatabaee from the Ukraine International Airlines crash scene in Iran. What was once a treasured personal effect, a family picture album, is seen among items strewn over the ground. The pictures are faded and drained of colour with age and mixed with other rubble like a lost object. Rescue workers trying to salvage the possession of those who lost their lives. Once happy memories now loaded with much sadness if they are returned to families of those who died in this crash. Read on here for the latest 

Passengers belongings are seen after a Ukraine International Airlines crashed after take off from Iran’s Imam Khomeni airport, on the outskirts of Tehran, Iran January 8, 2020.   REUTERS/WANA/Nazanin Tabatabaee

We can’t see the eyes of the border policeman although his mirror sunglasses and the helmet shield leaves us with the impression, right or wrong, of a calm and cold stare in Raneen Sawafta’s picture from the anti-Israel protests.  We are drawn to the centre highlight of the image to see enough detail of the protest in the mirror lenses to understand what he is watching.

An Israeli border policeman looks on during an anti-Israel protest by Palestinians, near Qalqilya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 6, 2020.    REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta 

So many funeral procession images have moved after the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdl al-Muhandis that it was hard to select one. But the claustrophobic and chaotic scene in Abdullah Dhiaa al-Deen’s picture is a very powerful image. It is so close to the coffin that you feel crushed, hot and breathless as hundreds of people struggle for a final touch of the coffin. Your eye is drawn through the teeming crowds to the distance by the brightly lit minarets of a mosque.

Mourners attend the funeral procession of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards and the Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdl al-Muhandis, who were killed in an airstrike at Baghdad airport, in Kerbala, Iraq January 4, 2020.   REUTERS/Abdullah Dhiaa al-Deen 

Equally busy and chaotic is Khalid al-Mousily’s picture from the funeral procession of Soleimani and al-Muhandis. It’s so busy your eye just doesn’t rest; it darts from the soldier in the black helmet in the foreground, then to the flags and the poster in the background, back to the man in the white short touching the vehicles, over to the soldier in the red beret looking backwards and then the to edges of the frame, sunglasses on the left and military vehicles on the right. You feel as breathless as if you were there.  

A coffin is seen inside a car during the funeral of the Iranian major-General Qassam Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdl al-Muhandis, who were killed in an airstrike at Baghdad airport, in Baghdad, Iraq, January 4, 2020.   REUTERS/Khalid al-Mousily

The Dakar rally is taking place in Saudi Arabia and Hamad Mohammed has the opportunity to shoot John Ford style landscapes and capture the sporting action too. Easier said than done, shutter speed too fast and the vehicles are frozen and look static, all drama lost. Shutter speed too slow and you get to much movement and you end up with a blurry picture, which looks great (some of the time) if intentional and it works well. The picture below perfect, just enough movement in the wheel but the action frozen. 

Monster Energy Honda Team 2020’s Kevin Benavides in action in Stage 4 of the Dakar rally in Neom Saudi Arabia January 8, 2020.   REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

Shooting a sports landscape too wide and you lose the detail of the action, too tight and you lose the landscape. The light has to be right and the shapes through contours of the landscape have to keep the eye interested. Hamad’s picture below is a perfect balance of all elements: John Ford would be proud. 

Red Bull KTM Factory Team’s Sam Sunderland in action in Stage 2 of the Dakar Rally in Neom Saudi Arabia January 6, 2020.   REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

One would imagine that at a very simple scenario, a person talking at a podium, one image would be enough. But if its news value is so important and the world is waiting to see the pictures a single definitive image probably wont exist, and a wide selection is needed to convoy the whole story. Competition is tight as the first pictures will probably be the most published. But what is also key is how the images are presented because a person talking at a podium is not visually rich. Photographer Mohamed Azakir was under pressure to deliver not only the first pictures, and seconds count, but the editors have to think how best to present them so they will be used again and again. A clever combination of Mohamed’s very fast pictures by picture editor Maria Semerdjian do the job required in this special case. If you had to chose a single image which one would it be? 

A combination of pictures show former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn addressing a news conference at the Lebanese Press syndicate in Beirut, Lebanon January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A combination of pictures show former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn addressing a news conference at the Lebanese Press syndicate in Beirut, Lebanon January 8, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir