Lockdowns have brought silence to some of the world’s busiest places. Transport hubs normally teeming with people such as New York’s Grand Central station or Istanbul’s Eminönü ferry docks are all but deserted. Reuters photographers captured the hush that had descended on some of the world’s best-known places on the same day, at noon
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Covid-19: signs of hope on Edinburgh’s streets – in pictures
Pictures of rainbows have begun appearing in windows up and down the country as families and households work to stay positive during the lockdown. The posters, many drawn or painted by children, often contain messages of support for the NHS. Further, inspired by the popular children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, teddy bears have also been on display. Photographer Murdo MacLeod went on a hunt of his own on the streets of Edinburgh
Continue reading...Clap for carers: applauding the NHS – in pictures
People across the UK have taken part in a mass round of applause in support of the NHS workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.
In the Clap For Carers initiative people took to their doorsteps and balconies applauding, banging pans and letting off fireworks. Notable buildings around the country were also lit up in blue
Continue reading...Through the lens: the pioneering work of Peter Lindbergh – in pictures
Over four decades the late German fashion photographer collaborated with many of the biggest names in the industry, from Kate Moss to Naomi Campbell
Continue reading...South Korea’s booming drive-ins – in pictures
Box office numbers for drive-in cinemas in Seoul, South Korea, are on the rise as people find a way to avoid crowds during the coronavirus outbreak
Continue reading...The Philippines and the struggle to maintain physical distance in lockdown – in pictures
The Philippines has taken drastic measures to combat the spread of Covid-19. The entire country is under strict quarantine and the army is on the streets to monitor compliance. According to official figures, there are 462 positive cases and 33 dead in the Philippines, but it is thought that thousands of cases remain undetected due to lack of resources in a country where millions of people have no access to health care. In the poorest and most crowded areas, it’s almost impossible to adhere to the physical distancing required during quarantine
Continue reading...Belgium enters lockdown over coronavirus crisis – in pictures
Belgium is the latest country to go into lockdown, with citizens asked to stay at home and limit contact to their closest family. From noon on Wednesday, all non-essential shops and open-air markets closed and people were expected to work at home
Continue reading...Smile-ing Boys Project – in pictures
Kay Rufai’s portraits of smiling black boys from south London came out of an initiative that investigated the lack of mental health provisions for black teenagers. The photographs will be on display at Brixton Village
Continue reading...St Patrick’s day – in pictures
On the day after 54 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Ireland, deserted streets and shuttered pubs stripped of cheers, speeches and marching bands marked a St Patrick’s day like no other.
Continue reading...Snapshot sisterhood: women train the lens on women – in pictures
To mark International Women’s Day, ActionAid is staging a photography exhibition that celebrates female trailblazers in poor countries – from the Guatemalan hip-hop artist who uses her music to champion feminism, to the founder of Kabul’s first yoga studio. All of the images, which are on show at the Oxo Tower in London until 8 March, are taken by female photographers
Continue reading...Taj Mahal posers through the years – in pictures
The Trumps are not the first to succumb to the irresistible urge to pose in front of the 17th-century mausoleum – it has struck celebrities and world dignitaries alike for decades
Continue reading...Rio carnival 2020 – in pictures
Brazil’s famed carnival kicked off in earnest on Saturday as millions of revellers poured into the streets, some of whom took aim at the nation’s deeply polarised politics. Most partiers, though, were dressed in distinctly apolitical garb, ranging from mermaid to cowboy costumes, suggesting that during carnival, Brazilians are focused on revelry first, and politics second
Canary Islands sandstorm leaves tourists stranded – in pictures
A sandstorm forced the closure of airports on Spain’s Canary Islands at the weekend. Scores of flights were cancelled after strong winds carrying red sand from the Sahara shrouded the tourist hotspot and the regional government declared a state of alert. The national weather service warned that winds of up to 120km/h were set to buffet the Canaries until Monday
Continue reading...Minamata review – Johnny Depp attempts redemption in heartfelt look at disaster that struck Japanese town
Depp plays real-life US photojournalist W Eugene Smith who travels to cover the story of mercury poisoning that caused horrendous disfigurements
Minamata is not a masterpiece and there are one or two cliches here about western saviours and boozy, difficult, passionate journalists who occupy the perennial Venn diagram overlap between integrity and alcoholism. This movie’s producer-star Johnny Depp has form on this score, with his starstruck impersonation of Hunter Thompson. And once again, he has chosen a role in which he wears a hat indoors. But Minamata is a forthright, heartfelt movie, an old-fashioned “issue picture” with a worthwhile story to tell about how communities can stand up to overweening corporations and how journalists dedicated to truthful news can help them.
Depp plays real-life US photojournalist W Eugene Smith whose glory days were in the second world war and the decades following, working for Life magazine in that now-forgotten era when analogue cameras were incapable of lying and magazines with compelling photos could command newsstand sales.
Continue reading...‘A step away from hell’: the young male refugees selling sex to survive
Photographer Heba Khamis spent a year and a half documenting the lives of ‘black birds’: the male Afghan and Iranian sex workers in Berlin’s Tiergarten
- All photographs by Heba Khamis
The allure of romance is never far away in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, a vast 520-acre expanse home to manicured lawns, dense forest, a picturesque boating lake and the city zoo. As families lay out picnics and millennials fire up barbecues, those seeking something more illicit head to the park’s wooded north, where young male Afghan and Iranian refugees can be found selling sex to the hundreds of buyers who pass through Tiergarten each day.
Continue reading...Blessing the harvest with the Naga of Myanmar – in pictures
The subsistence farmers of the Gongwang Bonyo tribe are among the most isolated people in Myanmar. Living near the Indian border, they gather each year to bless the harvest
Continue reading...Rio’s school for Samba – in pictures
Such is the reputation of the Paraíso de Tuiuti samba school in Rio de Janeiro that dancers travel from as far afield as the UK, Russia and Japan to train in the ways of hip-swivelling and hot-stepping. During Rio’s world-famous carnival, members of the school will dance in front of 70,000 spectators and tens of millions of television viewers
Continue reading...Lisbon’s outdoor art gallery – in pictures
Street art has transformed Quinta do Mocho, an area once plagued by crime and unemployment
South Korean mass wedding defies virus fears – in pictures
Thousands of couples – many in face masks – wed in a mass Unification Church ceremony on Friday despite concerns over the spread of the coronavirus
Continue reading...Swiss bliss: Teju Cole’s Alpine wanderlust – in pictures
The German Fernweh translates as a longing to be elsewhere. For Teju Cole this means Switzerland – which he visits ever year to write and photograph the country’s desolate beauty
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