Most papers devoted a spread to the worsening violence in Kiev today. The Independent decided not to bring the story forward, but to lead the World section on the story. This meant starting the story on a right-hand display page and turning to the next.
I particularly like the way the headline works with the almost historical air of the photograph. It doesn't have the flames and visceral violence of other papers, but there's something of the First World War about it that offers a sharp reminder that domestic turmoil can lead to international catastrophe.
It's a pity that only the agency, EPA, is credited. I think the photographer was Alexey Furman.
I particularly like the way the headline works with the almost historical air of the photograph. It doesn't have the flames and visceral violence of other papers, but there's something of the First World War about it that offers a sharp reminder that domestic turmoil can lead to international catastrophe.
It's a pity that only the agency, EPA, is credited. I think the photographer was Alexey Furman.
The Mail uses the same photograph on the right-hand page of its 14-15 spread. The crop changes the balance so that it is less dramatic. It nevertheless works well in contrast to the more colourful water cannon picture on the left. Even though I prefer the photograph on the right, I'd have been inclined to switch them so that the water is being directed at the crowds gathered in the smokey square.
There is a pleasing symmetry to the spread, but you have to be willing to study the smaller pictures to see how terrific they are: the stash of molotov cocktails, the slingshot and tyre weaponry, and the grim face of the
There is a pleasing symmetry to the spread, but you have to be willing to study the smaller pictures to see how terrific they are: the stash of molotov cocktails, the slingshot and tyre weaponry, and the grim face of the
 | man about to throw a rock from behind the riot shields. The Mail has decided that the unrest is now sufficiently severe to warrant an explainer on the following right-hander. The graphic is simple and effective. As this page is about style over substance, we'll stake over the 'evil empire' and say only that it's a pity that the reader has to turn four pages to read to the end. A slightly smaller heading and a bit of subbing wouldn't have hurt. |
The Guardian's restrained spread on 6-7 makes more of the tyre and sling shot and benefits greatly from seeing the goddess at the top of the Bereginia monument, which just about misses the gutter.The two subsidiary pictures add little. I might have been inclined to dispense with at least one of them and make the main picture a column wider, leaving a single-column story on the right. The gutter would then have been well away from the monument and the flames.
Here we have the same picture again on the Times foreign pages' opening spread. The gutter misses the monument nicely, but at the expense of the slingshot man's elbow. If the photograph must be constrained in that space, it's probably the better choice of crop, but it's a pity to lose his clearly defined left hand and wristwatch. If the Times had not compromised the spread by adding in a bit of Denmark and Germany that nobody would really have missed such a choice wouldn't have been necessary. The floating head bottom right is distracting and the cutout man with his hands full of rocks is too close to the main picture. But the ragbag army in the gilded monastery top right is an interesting combination. With a banner heading, the spread could do with a subsidiary head or standfirst on the left.
The Telegraph brings the story right forward to 4-5, but what a mishmash. It's hard to work on a page with those ads - but there are far too many tiny pictures that mean nothing.
 | The i spares only a half page on 9 to the violence, so it should really have stuck with a single picture - and with this space it should have been the tyre and slingshot. The factbox is a good idea in principle, but do we really learn anything here? |
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The Sun and Mirror both decided it was time to pay attention to Ukraine, devoting almost identical space to the violence - the Sun on 18-19, the Mirror a spread earlier. Although the Mirror's full-width picture is more dramatic than the Sun's upright, the effect is spolt by the inset pictures at the top and the three-word heading. With the subhead on the left, the headline gives the impression of being three separate labels for a table in which only the first bit has been filled in. This is, in fact, the result of putting in extra spacing between 'squad' and 'slaughter' in an attempt to match that required for the gutter betweeen 'death' and 'squad'.
The end result is to look like an Xbox or DVD cover.
The Sun goes even further down the movie poster road with the two bloodied people in the foreground, apparently walking away from the burning battlefield behind. The flag-waving and the typography only add to the effect.
Is it deliberate? Possibly.
Is it trivialising a serious situation? Possibly not.
It may have been intentional to draw readers into a subject that they might not normally care about.
And if that sounds too generous, bear in mind that the Sun does go to some effort to explain some background to what's going on in the panels.
The end result is to look like an Xbox or DVD cover.
The Sun goes even further down the movie poster road with the two bloodied people in the foreground, apparently walking away from the burning battlefield behind. The flag-waving and the typography only add to the effect.
Is it deliberate? Possibly.
Is it trivialising a serious situation? Possibly not.
It may have been intentional to draw readers into a subject that they might not normally care about.
And if that sounds too generous, bear in mind that the Sun does go to some effort to explain some background to what's going on in the panels.
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The Express and Star meanwhile make clear how far up their priorities Ukraine comes. For the Express it's page 30 with a Cameron angle. For the Star it's much more important - page 8, straight after the Brits and Benefit Streets, and in the company of Madeleine McCann.
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