Kristian Buus

Young activists looking into the future, scared and angry of what they see. Just Stop Oil is a climate action group working to put pressure on the UK government for it to end all new licenses for new exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. Many of the activists have committed themselves to civil disobedience and are facing potential long term prison sentences for their peaceful actions. I photographed the young activists in action and at later stage took their portrait. We sat down and talked about the future, - in 2050 many of them will be my age but their future looks very different to the one I was looking at when I was in my early twenties. In spite of the current climate emergency and impending global climate chaos caused by rising C02 emissions the UK government has granted new licenses to oil and gas companies to extract even more fossil fuels. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said: “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”

Thomas Frank, manager of Brentford FC. Photographed for Dossier Danmark in London.

The Arrestables is a series of portraits and interviews of Extinction Rebellion activists, all of whom have stepped forward ready to be arrested. Extinction Rebellion is a new British born climate activist movement which aims to push hard for policy changes on the ongoing climate crisis. The human and natural world is facing a serious threat of mass extinction because of climate change and the climate activists wants to push for dramatic and radical policy changes to avoid a possible extinction. One of the tools to do this is peacefull but determined mass civil disobedience where people sign up to be arrested. In April alone more than 1200 protesters were arrested in London when they shut down Central London and many more will come in the struggle for long lasting solutions to the climate emergency.

The Stansted 15 activists entered Stansted Airport and stopped a chartered deportation flight 28th of March 2017. The activists locked themselves together near the plane in a secluded part of the airport where deportation flights dock to take on their passengers. The flight was scheduled for Nigeria and Ghana to take 57 deportees, some of whom risking imprisonment and possible death in their home country according to the activists research. A number of the fifty-seven scheduled on the flight that night are still in the UK pending case hearings and at least two has been allowed to stay in the UK. Without the Stansted 15's intervention this would not have happened. They all wore pink on the night, a highly visible and benign colour and all the individuals portrayed carry a pink wholly hat worn on the night. All the portraits are taken on locations chosen by the activists, places which are significant to them in their struggle for social justice and struggle to end deportations. They have since been through 20 months of legal battles and an 8 weeks crown court trial in Chelmsford charged under the anti-terror legislation act which can carry a lengthy prison sentence. The 15 activists were found guilty by a jury in December 2018 and were sentenced Wednesday Feb 6th 2019. They all avoided prison sentences, twelve were given 100 hours of community service and three 9 months suspended prison service and 250 hours community service. They are currently appealing the charges.

13 climate activists from the climate activist group Plane Stupid staged a peaceful protest at Heathrow Airport in June 2015. The protest was against a proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport and aviation in general which the 13 activists see as a direct contribution to climate change. The Heathrow 13 activists cut through the perimeter fences at Heathrow airport and stopped air traffic for six hours by locking themselves together on one of the runways. They were all subsequently arrested and charged with aggravated trespass and being beside an airdrome without permission and were all found guilty as charged at Willesden Magistrate's Court in January 2016. At the time when found guilty the judge announced they would face prison when sentenced. The 13 portraits were all done in the three weeks between conviction and subsequent sentencing of the 13 Plane Stupid activists. At the time of photographing the 13 individuals all faced a real possibility of going to jail for up to 6 months for their actions. The future of all 13 was very uncertain and all had to prepare for going to jail for some time. The portraits aim to show their spirit and their commitment to civil disobedience for the sake of the climate. On Feb 24th all 13 walked out of court with a 6 weeks prison sentence suspended for 12 months and 120 hour community service each on average as punishment.

Salomon Hammer Trail Winter Edition on Bornholm is one of the toughest runs in Denmark. The 4 runs consist of a 50 mile run, a marathon, a 1/2 marathon and 10k all run a on an approximate 25km route which includes 860 meter vertical rise on the North East coast of the island. The cut-off time for the 50mile run was 16 hours and more than a hundred runners made it to the finishing line. The last runner was in after 50 miles in after 15:14:40 These portraits were shot on the finishing line in the dark on the harbour of Hammer, moments after the individuals had made it through a long day of running.

Manila, Philippines. Laura Vicuña Foundation, Inc. provides a safe haven, a secure home for girls where they live together with the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco order. They get the love and care they never have received and psychosocial counseling when needed from qualified psychotherapists. The Laura Vicuña Centre in Cubao houses 30 street girls, who may be orphaned, neglected, abandoned, battered, morally endangered and abused. The girls are aged between 6 and 16 and all of them go to school in the local school. To protect the girl's identity they have all been photographed partially covering themselves with masks they have made in art therapy. They have all picked their other names; most of the names are from American Idol or of famous Philippine actresses.

Voices from the vault. During the past 5 years of coalition Government in Britain the number of people who have had to turn to food banks has more than tripled, reaching more than a million. In a land of plenty there should be no need for food banks but in an age of austerity food banks have become part of the daily landscape in the UK. These portraits are shot on location at various food banks in Hackney and they accompany multi-media pieces on each individual. "Voices from the vault" is an ongoing project that started in spring 2015, telling the stories of people who find themselves at the food banks in Hackney. There are as many stories to tell as there are people using the food banks and the project will continue, especially in light of the recent general election results in Britain.

The Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared on March 30th that 'the weakest and most vulnerable would have to be the strongest" _ and while Denmark is slowly opening up after months of corona lock-down, care homes are still a no go are for friends and relatives of elderly people living there. I met some of them to hear what life was like in a car home in an age of corona. Når de svageste skal være de stærke - livet på et plejehjem i en coronatid. Statsminister Mette Frederiksen sagde på et pressemøde d 30. marts: “Jeg nødt til at sige til vores ældre og til de mest sårbare: I må fortsat forvente at skulle indrette jer efter smitterisikoen noget tid endnu. Vi beder de svageste om at være de stærkeste.” Mere end 2 måneder after at Danmark blev lukket ned, og alt imens resten af landet er ved at åbne op, må pårørende stadig ikke komme indenfor på besøg. De kan mødes udenfor, men der skal holdes afstand, dvs stadig ingen knus og kram. Jeg har mødt en række borgere for at høre om livet på et plejehjem i en corona-tid. Jeg må ikke komme indenfor, så vi har snakket sammen udenfor, og jeg har fotograferet dem i deres stuer gennem vinduerne. Ofte bliver ældre overset i samfundsdebatten, og formentlig bliver plejehjemsbeboere de sidste, til at leve frit igen, oven på corona krisen.