The World Cup is almost over and once again England is home disappointedly early. But for me, the World Cup has been a huge success. I have just returned from running a three-week photography workshop in the favelas of Sao Paulo which I genuinely feel has made a difference to lives of eight young men and women.
In 2010, actor/producer David Westhead and I
created “Wembley to Soweto” as a photography-based training course to be run during the South Africa World
Cup. It was (and still is) aimed at providing professional photographic
training and life-skills to historically disadvantaged young people, helping
them to move their own lives forward by creating opportunities and ultimately, for
them to make a positive contribution to their own society. The
project has by all accounts been a huge success, with the backing of such
luminaries as Dame Judi Dench and Alan Rickman, and has since run in Newcastle,
Brighton, Cumbria and most recently during the London 2012 Olympics. In fact,
the project does not stop when David and I leave – we continue to work online
with our students in every project
we’ve run, encouraging them to develop their careers by offering advice,
support and feedback.
+Favela+Colombo_JoaoPaulo.JPG)
Based on this success David and I, together with
our brilliant PR Director Susan Morton, embarked on a marathon fund raising exercise
to run the project in Sao Paulo during the 2014 Brazil World Cup. It was a hard
slog, but we did it, thanks to so many people who were so generous, especially
in the Hastings/Brighton area, donating money, cameras, equipment, expertise
and time.
In Sao Paulo, we ran the
project out of the Uniao (Union)
Community Centre in the heart of favela Jardim Colombo, in the southwest of the
city. Our objective was to let the young people in the favelas tell the story
of the World Cup from their point of
view. I know that the
favelas have a terrible reputation for violence, and some indeed may be
violent, but the people of Colombo couldn’t have been more welcoming and
supportive to our project.
Joao Paulo Lima (nicknamed,
Baqueta, in photo above), who we met during our April recce, managed through sheer
determination and perseverance to find us seven more students for the course:
Gustavo Rei Panda, Monique, Vinicius, Erika, Gleicimara, Mauricio and Gustavo
Henrique. Tariana, a Brazilian student from our London Olympics course, joined
us as student, translator and mentor to the younger students. Two of our
previous students -- Thapelo Motsumi from Soweto and Kasey Newton from London’s
East End – joined us for a week to work with the students. With Thapelo, Kasey
and Tariana as teachers in Sao Paulo, the project had come full circle, so that
those who were taught were now teaching.
The students photographed all three of Brazil’s matches in the
favela. Some people watched the matches in cafes, but most residents moved out
onto the street for makeshift street parties, watching the matches on huge TV
screens. Though hesitant at first, our students soon became adept at capturing
the joyously boisterous celebrations of Brazil’s march to the semi-finals of
the World Cup. We also ventured into the centre of Sao Paulo to photograph the Praca da Se, the elegant Cathedral square filled tourists, beggars and homeless
citizens; the Mercado Municipal, the
huge central market filled with colourful produce and the rich fragrance of
meat, fish and cheeses; the charming port town of Santos with it’s crumbling
colonial elegance amidst gigantic lorries trundling along the seafront, as well
as a visit to the hallowed shrine of Santos football stadium and museum; and an
evening in the Sao Paulo Fan Park for the England v Uruguay match, documenting
the strange tribal behaviour of English football fans. But most of all it was
about witnessing eight young men and women from the favelas, some with no
photography experience, grow in photographic ability, as well as in their own self-belief
and confidence.
From the very beginning in 2010, ‘Wembley to Soweto’ has been
blessed with some sort of magic. Good people do good things when we least
expect it. By sheer coincidence, my very last night in Sao Paulo was the night
of the Queen’s Birthday, which the British Consulate kindly invited myself,
Baqueta and Monique to attend. Prince Harry was to be the guest of honour. One
day later and these young students would never have had the chance to attend
such a prestigious and glitzy event.
Baqueta told me that when me met Prince Harry, the Prince
said, “I’m jealous – I wish I could be in your place and have a day doing what
you do.” Maybe not the official royal seal of approval, but close to it!
If I had any doubts after months of endless scrounging for
money, sorting logistical headaches and long nights processing images, they
immediately evaporated when I said goodbye to our students. Gustavo Rei Panda
wrote on his Facebook page, “When you are leaving, I am holding the tears
back.”
As was I.
Prince Harry, eat your heart out.
Rio Olympics 2016, here we come!
Please have a look at Guardian online, which has been running
a series of photos from the course:
