A heartfelt message from Nick @cobbing

This is Sini Saarela, a young activist from Finland. I made this picture of her high above the site of a nuclear power station, on an island off western Finland back in 2007. It was a slow climb and a gut-churning abseil down again. It was the tallest crane I’ve climbed, it felt like we were in the clouds up there. I spent a few nights up that crane to make the pictures -as much time as I could handle. After I left, Sini and other young activists decided to stay longer, sitting on cold steel tubes, eating muesli bars and snatching just a few hours sleep. They stayed for days more, I was impressed that they were prepared to do that for their belief.

Why am I telling you this now? Well, two weeks ago Sini climbed the Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Pechora Sea, to protest Arctic oil drilling. Live rounds were fired past her as she hauled herself up a spinning rope above crashing waves, six years have obviously done nothing to diminish her strength. After the protest, along with 29 of her shipmates she was held and taken to the port of Murmansk. Sini has just been given two months in prison while she awaits trial. I’ve photographed a lot of protest, but I get the easy part. The people I’ve photographed have gone a long way for their principles, they are strong and courageous people. I don’t think anyone reading this would want to spend two months or more in a Russian prison. As much as it pisses me off to know that she is there, I know she’s got the strength to cope with the hardship and will come out with more resolve to keep campaigning.

Sini does this not because she wants to be famous or because she wants people to like her on Facebook, but because she feels a connection to the planet; the earth under her feet. So please raise a glass to her tonight and if you haven’t done so already –sign the petition for the release of her and the other crew of the Arctic Sunrise.