Category Archives: Photography

A critic’s view: the delusion of Trump’s Covid-19 victory photo

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President’s pose on the White House balcony was a manic act of narcissistic theatre

The trouble with Trump is that, as he told Bob Woodward, “I bring rage out.” It’s hard to see this picture of him posing maskless on the White House balcony after “winning” against Covid without the red mist coming down.

To anyone with a sense of history, the echo of Mussolini on the balcony of Rome’s Palazzo Venezia is unmistakable. But many of his core voters may know as little history as he does and, besides, this is the White House, with American flags flanking him – still for many a stage of democracy, not dictatorship. Perhaps the real shock of the pose is its delusion. There is no crowd – he’s performing for himself and the camera.

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Kissing cowboys: the queer rodeo stars bucking a macho American tradition

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Photographer Luke Gilford couldn’t believe his eyes when he first stumbled across a gay rodeo. He set out to capture the joyous, tender, authentic world he saw there

Luke Gilford was at a Pride event in northern California in 2016 when he was drawn to a stand by the sound of Dolly Parton singing 9 to 5. What he found there would change his life. Members of the local chapter of the Golden State Gay Rodeo Association were promoting what they do, and how they live. Gilford looked on in astonishment. “I grew up around this world,” he says. “I had no idea this existed. I really didn’t think it was real.”

A sought-after film-maker and photographer, to whom Barbara Kruger is a mentor and Pamela Anderson and Jane Fonda muses, Gilford cuts a striking figure. A New York Times profile that same year recounted how you could often catch a glimpse of him downtown, in a hand-me-down cowboy hat, football-style shoulder pads over his bare torso.

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Hold Still – The UK Lockdown – in pictures

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Hold Still is a digital exhibition hosted by the National Portrait Gallery. People of all ages, from across the UK, were invited to submit a photographic portrait which they had taken during lockdown. The project aimed to capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation as we continued to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The final 100 images include one by the Guardian’s Sarah Lee

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On the frontline against Covid-19 in Ethiopia – a photo essay

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Yonas Tadesse is an Ethiopian photographer based in Addis Ababa who has been documenting doctors and emergency workers fighting coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak. This series focuses on the taskforce at the Eka Kotebe hospital in Addis Ababa

The first case of Covid-19 in Ethiopia was reported on 13 March, when a team of first responders took in a 48-year-old Japanese man. Having never seen anything like his condition, they did not know what to prepare for, and thus started their new normal of battling the coronavirus in Ethiopia.

Doctors, nurses, janitors, security guards and drivers donned hats they had never dreamed of wearing as they worked to develop systems and techniques to minimise the damage from the virus – often at the cost of their health, their home lives, their reputations, and sometimes their lives.

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The girls and women fighting to stop child marriage – photo essay

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Five women affected by child marriage tell their stories – and of their struggles to protect others

  • Text and photographs by Thom Pierce

Twelve million girls are married every year before they reach 18, according to UN estimates. And in its first set of global statistics on child marriage rates among boys, the UN found one in 30 young men were married as children.

Advances have been made, however. Ending child marriage by 2030 is a target in the UN’s set of sustainable development goals, and many countries have launched strategies to stop the practice. But progress is slow and likely to be badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic as closed schools and financial pressures take their toll on families. In April, the United Nations Population Fund predicted that an additional 13 million children could be married over the next decade because of disruption to programmes.

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Coronavirus curfew in Havana, Cuba – in pictures

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Cuban authorities have launched a strict 15-day lockdown of Havana to try to stamp out the low-level but persistent spread of coronavirus. In addition to a curfew, most stores are barred from selling to shoppers from outside the immediate neighbourhood to prevent people from moving around the city

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Magnum reviewing archive as concerns raised about images of child sexual exploitation

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Agency to review historical photographs after issue raised on website and social media

Magnum Photos, one of the world’s most celebrated photographic agencies, is to re-examine the content of its archive of more than 1 million images after accusations it made available photographs that critics said may show the sexual exploitation of minors.

In a statement, the president of Magnum, Olivia Arthur, said the agency, whose founders included Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, had begun an “in-depth internal review to make sure that we fully understand the implications of the work in the archive, both in terms of imagery and context.

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Mexican families mourn workers claimed by Covid in the US – photo essay

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In July, the remains of nearly 250 migrant workers were repatriated to Mexico City. Two grieving families share their stories and loss

  • Text and photographs by Alejandra Rajal

On Saturday 11 July, a plane arrived in Mexico City with the remains of nearly 250 Mexican migrant workers who had died of Covid-19 in the US. A solemn ceremony was held with the participation of the consul general for New York, Jorge Islas López, who had helped organise the repatriation flight.

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The aftermath of the explosion in Beirut – in pictures

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Lebanon is in mourning and surveying the damage to its capital, Beirut, after a massive explosion ripped through the city’s port and surrounding areas on Tuesday. At least 100 people were killed and 4,000 injured, with many still feared trapped under rubble

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‘Water is sacred’: 10 visual artists reflect on the human right to water

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The UN declared access to water and sanitation a human right a decade ago, but 785 million people worldwide still have no water close to home

Ten photographs marking the 10th anniversary of access to water and sanitation being declared a human right by the UN have been commissioned from 10 visual artists by the charity WaterAid to show the impact of clean water on people’s lives.

Globally, 785 million people – one in 10 – still lack access to water close to home and 2 billion people – one in four – don’t have a toilet of their own.

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Marcus Rashford scores cover of British Vogue’s September issue

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The footballer is recognised for his activism in the magazine among 40 ‘faces of hope’

Marcus Rashford’s inspirational, policy-changing campaign against child poverty has garnered him accolades aplenty. Now it has also propelled the footballer on to the front cover of British Vogue’s September issue.

The Manchester United striker, who forced a government U-turn on the granting of free food vouchers for the poorest families over the summer, headlines a special edition dedicated to activism.

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The images of ordinary Soweto that captured apartheid’s injustice

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David Goldblatt’s photo essay from 1972 is a key document of an era. Now he is the subject of a major show in London

The photographer David Goldblatt, the great chronicler of the apartheid era in South Africa, is to be celebrated by one of the first London art galleries to re‑open this month.

Goldblatt, who died in 2018, has not been the subject of a major London show for more than 30 years. The new exhibition, David Goldblatt: Johannesburg 1948-2018, at the Goodman Gallery in Mayfair, will focus on a particularly moving photo essay, Soweto, from 1972. The photographs in the series were taken over six months in a febrile atmosphere that would lead to an uprising in this impoverished area of Johannesburg four years later.

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