Photographer Page

Moises Saman

Protestors prepare to throw a Molotov cocktail toward police during clashes in 2012 near Tahrir Square in Cairo.

A boy flies his kite during lockdown in Amman, Jordan, in April 2020. For a few days in March, the government had imposed even tighter restrictions—shutting down nearly everything and instituting a 24-hour curfew backed up by tanks and army trucks, with no exceptions even to get food and medicine. Amman is built on hills, and from his kitchen, photographer Moises Saman could hear the echoes of citywide sirens, the kind used for air raid warnings. He stayed inside with his family until the curfews began to ease. Then he went to find the places where refugees live, including the neighbourhood where this photograph was taken. Despite fears that their crowded settlements and neighbourhoods would lead to uncontainable spread of COVID-19, Jordan's strict lockdown kept the pandemic at bay during its early months. But as lockdown measures eased, cases began to surge by the fall—a warning to all countries to remain vigilant.

Iraqi Christians gather for prayer on the outskirts of Qaraqosh in preparation for the pope's arrival. The pontiff urged them to forgive ISIS extremists who destroyed their churches and much of the traditionally Christian town.

Pope Francis is welcomed at the presidential palace in Baghdad shortly after the pontiff’s arrival in Iraq on March 5. Francis is the first pope to visit Iraq. “I am coming as a pilgrim, as a penitent pilgrim, to implore from the Lord forgiveness and reconciliation after years of war and terrorism, to beg from God the consolation of hearts and the healing of wounds,” Francis said in a greeting to the people of Iraq before his visit.

At the Morija clinic in Kaya, workers craft a curving Nubian vault with mud bricks.

Workers at a quarry in Hounde hammer laterite bricks from the solid ground. Whereas mud must first be shaped into bricks before drying, laterite can be extracted in rectangles. The two materials have similar thermal properties.

Maxim Kiemdrebeojo, 17, lives at Kéré-designed orphanage of laterite brick in Koudougou. The orphanage shelters boys and girls, some of them displaced by armed conflict with Islamists in the north and east of Burkina Faso. Supervisors report that the coolness in the orphanage helps reduce conflict among the residents.

The Koudougou central market is a large, vaulted building of compressed-earth brick. Vendors say it keeps them cool—and fruit and vegetables from rotting.

Trees planted around the campus help protect it from flooding during the rainy season, and will provide more shade—and mangoes—when grown.

Teachers at the technical college say that the cooler conditions inside the classrooms improves concentration even during the height of the summer.