Tackling the climate crisis will not be solved by turning off lights and using an electric car. It is a colossal global problem that needs intervention and action at national and international level. Extinction Rebellion is focused on calling on government and big business to stop being the problem and start being the solution. That is why I believe that XR is the most significant climate action organisation and that I should be supporting it.
I started getting involved with XR in the autumn of 2019 and photographed a number of actions that were part of the Autumn Rebellion. I had no experience of photojournalism but learned quickly. My role would be to be as close to the action as possible, get newsworthy pictures, edit them in the field and upload to the XR media team to make the pictures available to the world’s media. Now I am an established member of the South East Photographers group and have covered London actions, oil field protests, marches and other events.
The story of XR is significant within the climate crisis movement and fitted neatly into my stories about the climate crisis concept. I wrote a story about XR and how they captured the frustrations of so many people. I already had the pictures to illustrate the story.
Well informed people understand the climate crisis. They understand that their lives and the lives of the next generation will be increasingly affected by a changing and more chaotic climate. They see the government and big business attempting to claim that everything is OK, everything is under control and they know it isn’t true. XR is their conduit to rebel against this complacency and that is exactly what they are doing. That is the spirit I attempt to capture in Rebel For Life.
