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...Category Archives: Photography
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
Continue reading...Cruise ships quarantined over coronavirus – in pictures
Thousands of passengers and crew on two cruise ships in Asian waters have been placed in quarantine after cases of coronavirus were confirmed onboard. About 3,700 people are facing at least two weeks locked away on the Diamond Princess cruise liner anchored off Japan, while 1,800 passengers and crew are being kept onboard the World Dream, docked in Hong Kong
Continue reading...Saving Tallabrook Lodge: the battle against Australia’s raging fires – in pictures
Guardian Australia photographer Mike Bowers and reporter Christopher Knaus joined the Cowie family defending their property about 100km from Canberra
Continue reading...Billions of locusts swarm through Kenya – in pictures
Huge locust swarms in east Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades
Continue reading...‘Passengers of light’ visit Iran-Iraq war memorials – a photo essay
Pilgrimages made by loved ones of those who died in combat are also supported and organised by the regime, which sees in them the opportunity to spread its doctrine
In Iran, every spring, thousands of families travel to the battle sites of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). Many of those who make these pilgrimages – called Rahian-e Noor in Persian (the passenger of light) – lost loved ones in the war, which caused more than half a million deaths on the Iranian side.
But they are also supported and organised by the regime, which sees the opportunity to disseminate its doctrine.
Continue reading...What young women think in 2020
Children’s charity Plan International UK and photographer Joyce Nicholls travelled across the UK talking to young women about the issues important to them in 2020: public safety, body image, social media and feminism. Their research found that girls are fed up and frustrated with the lack of real progress on gender equality.
Continue reading...Conga and carnival: Havana’s jazz festival – in pictures
New Orleans and Cuban musicians join in Havana’s annual jazz festival, defying Trump’s efforts to weaken US-Cuba relations
Continue reading...Ashen landscapes of the Philippines after Taal volcano eruption – in pictures
The eruption of Taal volcano near Manila spewed lava into the sky, leaving villages blanketed by heavy ash. The falling ash pushed aviation officials to temporarily shut down the capital’s main airport, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and stranding tens of thousands of travellers.
Continue reading...