Rückenwind translates from German to mean tail wind. It also happens to be the name of a long term project supported by Youth in Action to provide young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with opportunities for personal development.

In January of this year one of these opportunities saw 5 volunteers from around Europe arrive in the twin Cornish villages of Cawsands and Kingsands with the challenge or restoring a hundred year old fishing boat called ‘Two Sisters.’ Ville, Harry, Markus, Fabian and Peter, under the guidance of project leader Leo Kaserer and local fisherman Malcolm Baker, set about attempting to return the boat to it’s original condition. No mean feat given many years of neglect.

Also arriving in Cornwall with a challenge were a small film crew comprising myself and James Stier who had the task of filming the project for Sheffield based production company Voidcomp. The project was great fun to work on and couldn’t have been completed without the good humour of the young people themselves and the local community who fully got behind the project.

The 20 minute film is currently undergoing a german translation and awaits broadcast in several European member countries. A follow up documentary focusing on several of the main characters is currently in pre-production.

No, it’s not the 2012 games just yet, but you can already feel the hype building. Within minutes of turning on a television set we’re presented with some reference to the London Olympiad and as the months fly by you can expect nothing more than for the anticipation to rise… even if you didn’t get to buy any tickets!

One thing that struck me in all of the excitement is the increasingly visible profile of our disabled athletes. I’ve been photographing disability sport for a good few years now and have noticed this rise in media presence at some of the events I’ve attended. In addition to winning the contract to cover the 2012 Paralympics games, Channel 4 have already screened programmes like ‘That Paralympic Show and ‘Inside Incredible Athletes’.

Having a mainstream broadcaster ready to air 150 hours of coverage during the 12 days of competition raises the Paralympics from ‘niche’ to that of a major sporting event.

Advertisers seem to have taken this on board too. Those carbon fibre bladed legs as worn by Oscar Pretorius seem to flash across our screens at every opportunity. Even if the slightly cynical side of me strays into thinking companies like BP want to be seen as inclusive in their advertising so they can portray themselves as being more socially conscious, I still see the trend as being a positive one.

As someone who has worked with people with disabilities in education for 10 years now I think anything that can raise awareness and break down those barriers is a positive move. A prosthetist i’ve been filming with recently told me that many of the young athletes he has worked with are proud to show off their prosthetic legs where once they used to try to hide them away.

So back to the title of this post ‘Beyond 2012′. Myself and fellow Statement member James Dodd recently spent a weekend filming with junior disabled athletes for Disability Sport Events, the English Federation of Disability Sport and their sponsors Nationwide. The video at the top of this post is just a brief snippet from that event.

Inspired by gold medallists such as Ellie Simmonds and Sam Hynd at the Beijing Paralympics all of the young athletes we filmed with are eagerly looking at 2012 and beyond to the 2016 games in Rio. And judging by their enthusiasm I sincerely expect they’ll make it.

Yet in a sporting environment where sponsorship is vital to be able to organise and run events, and indeed compete in them, I can only hope the legacy of supporting disabled sport in Britain continues past London’s brief window of opportunity next summer, so that our future Paralympic hopefuls get the best chance possible.

As one young athlete said to me “we should get to do what ambulant athletes do, there’s no difference between us”. Which is a fair point, and with that I feel I should go back through this article and edit all of the times I’ve written ‘disabled athlete’ to just leave the word ‘athlete’.

The opening will include a talk from the Scottish refuge council and aims to bring attention to the pressures facing asylum seekers and mental illness inside the asylum system.

Robert will say a few words about his project and will also be available to answer questions on his work from 4pm-6pm.

More details can be found here.

The Star Gazy Boat Project.

Earlier this year I accompanied James Stier from Sheffield based production company Voidcomp to the small twin fishing villages of Cawsand and Kingsand in Cornwall. We were there to film an EU funded youth project organised by Leo Kaserer. The idea behind the project was to take a group of young people with challenging backgrounds from around Europe and put them into a new supportive environment and give them an objective to achieve.

In this case the group were challenged to restore a hundred year old fishing boat that had been left to decay for many years. The group were guided in their task by Malcolm, the last remaining fisherman in the village.

We made two trips to Cornwall to film the project and everybody made us extremely welcome. Despite the 6 am starts and long days (and a few unplanned swims in a very cold January sea) we really didn’t want to leave. Big thanks to everyone who helped us out, from those who made it possible to have the Christmas lights turned on for an evening, to Leo for putting us up at his house, to the young people who put up with us filming their every move and to the fisherman Malcolm who took us out on the fishing boat.

The film, which is currently being edited, will be used to promote the project and hopefully secure more funding so that similar events can happen in the future.

Working very much on the fly the crew, featuring camera operators Gary and Mark with support from James Stier and Paul Oxborough, filmed the narrative parts of the video at various locations throughout the city. This included a key scene in The Little Flower Shop on Abbeydale Road. Many thanks to them for not only allowing us to use the premises to film but also for being game enough to feature in the video!

The single ‘Godless Girl’ is out now with the band’s debut album ‘Chasing After Ghosts’ following on the 21st March. The band will be touring the UK and Europe from March until the end of May.

Video Directed by The Crookes

Girl – Kirsty Elizabeth Huzzard

Film by Statement Images.

Mark Lomas – Camera/Editing
Gary Taylor – Camera Assistant
James Stier – Assistant Director
Paul Oxborough – Gaffer

image copyright Chris Jordan

I believe Chris Jordan when he says these scenes of dead Albatross chicks with their bellies full of plastic bottle tops and other such items were photographed faithfully. Nothing added either at the time or manipulated after the fact.

Yet I still find it hard to believe that thousands of miles from anywhere these poor creatures have starved to death, their parents mistaking brightly coloured plastic refuse for food. But here we are provided with the disturbing truth that our throw away society really can impact upon everyone and everything no matter how far away you may be.

Midway – Message from the Gyre by Chris Jordan.

The voice over by U.S Army Staff Sgt Jack Lewis feels like something straight out of Apocalypse Now. It’s a small story of tragedy in Iraq but told in a way so far removed from what we’re used to seeing from that part of the world. If photojournalism has to evolve to survive then this is one direction it should certainly follow.

Watch it on his website here.