Photo Essays

1. Grape picking on the Al-Natsheh plantation begins at first light. During the harvesting season, some 15 helpers gather the grapes and pack them into crates

Sweet grapes from Palestine – The grape farmers of Al-Baqa'a

In the Palestinian village of Al-Baqa'a to the east of the city of Hebron, is one of the region's oldest vineyards – surrounded by an ...More

1. On the eve of the traditional camel wrestling festival in the western Turkish city of Selcuk, the first priority is to impress the beauty contest selection committee. Candidates are draped in colourful attire and hung with bells. The camels are then led on a rope through the streets accompanied by the sounds of drums and flutes

Traditional camel wrestling in Selcuk: "once in the ring, things get serious!"

You won′t find cockfights or bullfights in the west of Turkey. Instead, elaborately decorated camels enter the ring here – to the pride of ...More

Beyond capacity: On one cold night in December, some 750 homeless people in Tehran went to a homeless shelter – called Khavaran – to stay warm. Until then, the shelter hadn't housed more than 400 people on a single night

Iran's homeless: Cardboard boxes and vacant graves

Iran has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people in the past few years. Rights activists blame President Rouhani ...More

Celebrating Orthodox Christmas in Istanbul

Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on 6 January with a festive mass led by Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Church of St. George in Istanbul. ...More

War photographer: Andy Spyra was born in the western German city of Hagen in 1984. After finishing school he travelled around Central America and Southeast Asia while discovering his passion for photography. From 2007 to 2009, he studied photo-journalism and documentary photography at an academy in Hanover. He travels to war zones frequently, typically taking black-and-white pictures on long-term assignments

War photographer Andy Spyra: more than just pictures

He travels to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria. There’s hardly any war region that he hasn't visited. And usually, he comes back with ...More

A precious fragrance: after livestock, the frankincense trade is the largest source of revenue in Somaliland. But harvesting frankincense is not an easy task: among other things, harvesters must scale rocky hillsides and cliff faces, while fending off venomous snakes

Somaliland′s frankincense trade under threat

Somaliland′s wild frankincense forests are under threat as global demand for essential oils rockets. Unsustainable harvesting has ...More

City in shock: on Tuesday morning, just hours after a truck ploughed into a Christmas market in the heart of the city, candles and roses had been laid near the entrance of a nearby station. Security forces are patrolling trains and train stations, police are on high alert in Berlin as flags fly at half-mast. Streets in the area of the incident remain closed off, and buses have been re-routed

Berlin attack: an overview in pictures

The tomb of Muhammad Ahmad in Omdurman, near Khartoum in Sudan. In his homeland, he was known only as the "Mahdi" (the redeemer). He led a rebellion against the British, who ruled Sudan until 1956

The Sufis of Khartoum

Sufism – the mystical path of Islam – enjoys a long tradition in Sudan. Sufis aspire to achieve perfection of worship through music, dance ...More

Since the failed putsch attempt of 15 July and the purges against Gulen supporters in Turkey, many who have chosen Istanbul as their adopted home have had to re-evaluate their relationship to the city bridging two continents. Even though the Facebook pages of expats are full of concerned comments this year, many have no intention of simply leaving Istanbul

Istanbul, my adopted home – despite putsch, terrorism and repression

Istanbul exerts a unique appeal not only on tourists, as it is also the adopted home of the largest expat community in Turkey. Nonetheless ...More

A new home: until this year, Majd Kara had never been to Vilnius. Now the capital of Lithuania has become the Syrian painter's home and he has even found a temporary studio close to the city centre. "But I will have to give the keys back. The studio has no heating, so during the last months of autumn I was painting with frozen hands. But I will find some new place. I will continue painting," he says

Syrian painter challenges Lithuania's fear of refugees

Fleeing war-torn Syria, painter Majd Kara found himself in Lithuania where half the population says they refuse to help asylum-seekers. ...More

First cities: humanity′s first cities were founded on the banks of Euphrates and Tigris Rivers around 6,000 years ago. Over three millennia, the Mesopotamian civilisation developed into a dense network of cities, eventually giving rise to veritable urban centres like Babylon and Nineveh, the latter reconstructed here in an illustration

Mesopotamia: cradle of civilisation

The land between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in the Middle East is one of the cradles of Western civilisation. Many inventions from ...More

Iraqi army discovers a mass grave: while Iraqi troops advanced further into territory held by the so called “Islamic State” in their campaign to recapture Mosul, they found a mass grave which holds about 100 bodies, many of them decapitated. AP footage shows bones and decomposed bodies dug out of the ground by a bulldozer. This Iraqi federal police officer holds a stuffed animal he found on the site

Liberating Mosul from "Islamic State"

What has happened in Mosul since the operation to retake the city from the so-called "Islamic State" started in October? Photo essay by ...More

Street art in the Afghan capital: a group of Afghan activists and artists has painted graffiti on concrete blast walls that protect government buildings, businesses, embassies and homes of powerful people in Kabul. They're known as the Afghan "Banksy" after the famous graffiti artist from Bristol. Their street art highlights social problems in Afghanistan after almost four decades of war

Afghan 'Banksy' takes Kabul

A group of Afghan artists has painted graffiti on the walls of government buildings, businesses and embassies in Kabul. They call ...More

"The Memory Matrix" is a temporary public space intervention by Bosnian-Austrian artist and architectural historian Azra Aksamija. Thousands of Plexiglas pixels are arranged in order to give a digital physical image of aspects of destroyed heritage. Each pixel was designed by project participants and contains outlines of buildings and destroyed cultural heritage

Qalandiya International: Palestine's contemporary arts festival

Throughout the month of October, several cities across the West Bank, Gaza and Israel have been hosting the Qalandiya International ...More

Total destruction: photographer Yusuke Suzuki travelled over the Turkish border into Aleppo, in Syria. This picture in his series "City of Chaos" shows a once-lively shopping street. "When I arrived in Aleppo, I realised that there wasn't any water, gas, electricity, nor medicine, schools, jobs or baby milk here, he said

Photographer Yusuke Suzuki: Discovering the meaning of war

Japanese photographer Yusuke Suzuki has just received the Award for Young Emerging Talents at the Berlin Photo Biennial. To understand ...More

The many faces of Mazar-i-Sharif: this old man is one of more than 100 Afghans that German photographer Jens Umbach has captured during his visits to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif

The Afghans – A different perspective

German photographer Jens Umbach travelled to the north of Afghanistan to pay tribute to the people affected by the German military mission ...More

Palestine at the turn of the last century – Gustaf Dalman's glass slide collection in Jerusalem

Gustaf Dalman (1855-1941) is viewed as the founder of Palestine studies in Germany. As the first director of a German archaeological ...More

This rescued lion was meant to appear on a TV show. Generally, however, Lebanese zoos sell their animals to private individuals. Now, however, this could all be coming to an end. Lebanon′s Minister of Agriculture Akram Chehayeb recently announced that "all animals held by illegal traders and outlets are to be seized. These animals belong neither in a cage nor private house as symbols of power and prestige"

Stop Lebanon′s illegal animal trade

Poor government, economic recession, cultural norms: all factors that have turned Lebanese zoos into hotbeds of illegal animal trading. An ...More

Religious joy: an experience that must be captured and recorded. For many Muslims the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia is the crowning moment of their faith. It is the religious duty of every Muslim to carry out the hajj – a journey that lasts several days – at least once in their lives, providing the individual is in good health and can afford to do it. Saudi Arabia is responsible for organising the pilgrimage

The Hajj: pilgrims in their millions

Millions of devout Muslims are again conducting the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. This year, the biggest ...More

Against the burkini ban: it's not a real beach and not France; nonetheless, it was a symbolic gesture against the now-overturned burkini ban on some French beaches. "Women and men should decide for themselves what they want to wear," said a woman wearing a bikini at the event

Belgium: Burkini meets bikini

Muslim women in Belgium organised a different kind of protest. They gathered in Antwerp to celebrate at a beach party, dressed in burkinis ...More

The masked women of southern Iran

Along Iran′s coastline and on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, women have been wearing masks for centuries. The styles vary ...More

Time to celebrate: millions of people across India marked the country's liberation from the British Raj. The celebrations included dances, parades and ceremonies on all levels of society. India became independent on August 15, 1947 – one day after Pakistan declared its independence

Indian sub-continent: 70 years of independent rule

This month while Pakistan marked its independence, its twin India also celebrated its freedom from British rule. Tensions between the two ...More

A transport hub: during two World Wars and through the golden age of Lebanon in the 1950s and 1960s, Rayak train station played a vital role in transporting soldiers, goods and passengers around Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. However, the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon was the last time a locomotive pulled into this station

Only rust remains at Rayak: Lebanon′s railway heritage

In August 1895, the first steam locomotive departed from the port city of Beirut, crossed the rugged terrain of Lebanon′s Bekaa valley and ...More

Silent resistance: more than 37 years of repression have not eroded the courage of these women. Many Iranian women interpret the dress code very freely. They may wear a veil and a coat, but with an individual twist

Playing cat and mouse with Iran′s morality police

Since the Islamic Revolution women in Iran have been obliged to follow a strict dress code. But an increasing number are refusing to obey ...More

Bahareh Hedayat: A women's rights activist and prominent figure in the student movement in Iran. In 2010, shortly before her wedding, she was arrested and ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was head of an organisation fighting for political reforms and against human rights violations

Iran's female political prisoners

Iran is holding numerous women in jail on political charges. They include human rights activists, journalists, artists and simply engaged ...More

Pages

In brief

More

Partner Organizations

www.dw.dewww.goethe.dewww.ifa.dewww.bpb.de

Facebook

Most Recent Photo Essay

Rufia Begum, aged 9, is among more than 700,000 Rohingya who have taken shelter in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh after fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar last year, the United Nations and human rights groups say

Wearing tradition – thanaka paste in a Rohingya camp

Thanaka, a paste that has been used for centuries to protect skin from the sun, is traditionally applied in swirls to the cheeks of Rohingya Muslim women. Itʹs a custom female refugees in Bangladesh are keen to preserve. By Clodagh Kilcoyne

Qantara dossier: European travellers in the Orient

(photo: Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung im Hausarchiv des Bankhauses Sal. Oppenheim)

Our dossier contains a selection of interesting biographies and reports on renowned European travelers to the Orient from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.More

Goethe-Institut's Perspektiven: Generational conflict

Goethe-Institut Perspektiven logo (source: Goethe-Institut)

Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon… six young women and men from six different countries put their individual views and experience with the generational conflict into words for this dossier.More

Top 10 books about Muslims and Islam by Saadia Faruqi

Media stereotypes and misinformation about Muslims are nothing new. In post-election America, Muslims are finding more allies who often want to help but don’t know much about Islam. More and more non-Muslims have questions and are seeking answers.More

An eye-catching tableau for resistance: graffiti art in Bethlehem

The trailblazer: in 2005, the legendary British street artist Banksy visited the West Bank and left behind nine stencilled graffiti images on the wall and on private buildings in and around Bethlehem. His satirical and critical commentary on Israel's occupation policy marked the start of an onslaught of international and Palestinian graffiti artists – amateurs and professionals alike – who have adorned the wall with their political and personal messages.

An eye-catching tableau for resistance: graffiti art in Bethlehem

In 2002, the then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of a barrier wall that would run along the ceasefire line of 1949 with the intention of separating Israeli territories from the Palestinian West Bank. In Bethlehem, graffiti artists have started using the wall as a canvas for political protest and socially critical art. By Laura Overmeyer

Female Kurdish singer rallies the troops

Kurdish singer Helly Luv (photo: Getty Images/Safin Hamed)

Iraqi Kurdish singer Helly Luv was in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, filming the video to her latest hit. Luv is aiming for international fame as she releases her new English song 'Revolution', calling for action against terrorism and violence.More

Syria's Cultural Heritage in Danger

Over four millennia, Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman influences crossed paths in Syria. Today, precious cultural sites from these eras are being damaged as the Syrian civil war takes its toll on the country's cultural heritage. This week, the United Nation's cultural organization UNESCO made fresh reports about damage to Syria's historic sites.

Syria's Cultural Heritage in Danger

The civil war in Syria, which has taken the lives of thousands since 2011, is becoming increasingly brutal. Valuable cultural sites are also being destroyed in the fighting. UNESCO has now provided reports on the damage.

"The Crusades: Holy War"

Dr Thomas Asbridge (source: BBC.co.uk)

In this three-part documentary by BBC 2, Dr Thomas Asbridge presents a revelatory account of the Crusades, the 200-year war between Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land. More