In London I am going to hold a photo exhibition of children with disabilities around the world. By capturing the children with disabilities in their joyful state and positive energy via pictures, I envisage this photo exhibition will give hope to exhibition visitors. The U.K. is deeply conscious of children with disabilities, so after obtaining a good evaluation in the U.K., I am aiming to hold a photo exhibition in Japan.

Profile of Fumio Nabata 

A girl with the down's syndrome"Positive Energies "
Fumio Nabata, Richard Bailey, Fiona Yaron-Field, those three Japan-UK photographers are going to hold a Photo Exhibition entitled “Positive Energies” under the theme of the people with Down Syndrome. Nabata will display the positive children’s photos which was taken around the world like, Japan, England, Myanmar, South Africa, and so on, supported by the fund collected through Crowd Funding entitled “The World Photo Exhibition Project for the Children with Disabilities.”,
      
Bailey is a main member of “Shifting Perspectives” which has been held in seven countries. He will exhibit the photos of the grown up people with Down Syndrome who work in various fields as professionals. Yaron will exhibit portraits of expecting mothers whose babies are diagnosed that they have Down Syndrome and also made up their mind to bring them into the world. We three depict the life of the people with Down Syndrome by pregnancy, childhood, and grown-ups. 
  

Our fundamental purpose is based upon the Act 8 of UNCRPD ( Designated at the UN General Assembly in 2006, 160 ratified countries including Japan) –Awareness-raising, which is “To raise awareness throughout society, including at the family level, regarding persons with disabilities, and to foster respect for the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities;”

Our photo exhibition will be organized not to focus upon the disability itself or to elicit sympathy from the audience, but to present photos which give a very positive impression of theirs and give positive energy to the audience.

Those works taken by Fumio Nabata which were taken throughout the world, could tell that every child with disabilities has the same positive energy in common despite of their countries and races. Those countries, Myanmar and South Africa, are the former British ruled areas and a young boy with Down Syndrome from UK has already become famous as a child model for M&S (Marks & spencer) a big retailer company in UK. 
In addition, we present Yaron’s works which focus on expecting mother, and Bailey’s works of grown-ups, could definitely draw attention of the people in UK and raise awareness on this issue.
   
I would like to bring this Photo Exhibition in UK to Japan, and aiming at joining the support program to 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, so we could contribute and promote the social awareness and the understanding for the people with disabilities in Japanese society.
 

Photography scenery in the U.K.During the past few years, the new prenatal diagnosis test to detect the chromosomal abnormalities of a fetus has been prevailed, and many expecting mothers have that inspection. Now, 90% in UK, 96% in Japan, of the examinees who found positive expectinga children with Down Syndrome choose abortion. (Reference: BBC, UK. Mainichi Newspaper, Japan.)
   
Many mothers and her families are facing the severe fact and choices whether to accept the baby with disabilities to each family or not. In those difficult circumstances, I would like to propose another option to provide the photos of the children and grown-ups with full of positive energy who are living in this actual society throughout the world, as one of the positive choice of theirs.

At the same time, we have anxieties in our society, the prevalence of new prenatal diagnosis test could foster the social mood to filter the people with disabilities from the communities. In bouth countries, some mass-media make problem presentations.
  　

Gallery@OXO  website
Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse Street, South Bank, London SE1 9PH 
It is scheduled to be held from 16th to 21st May 2018

 Embassy of Japan in the UK                     The Japan Society in the UK
　　
Japan Down Syndrome Society         Down's Syndrome Association (UK)
   
 Myanmar Down Syndrome Association               Down Syndrome South Africa                             

 Smart Inclusion Innovation Consortium  
      

 The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation    The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

      

NPO Osaka US Club

The project was introduced at Kansai TV “News Runner”

2018.3.24

The Kansai TV news program was broadcasted on 20th March. entitled "Convey the Energy of the Smile. A photographer taking Children with Down Syndrome"

"A baby grow up healthily."
Works of the Myanmar Project.

25 Apr, 2017

We are luckily enough to get a participation of Ms. Fiona Yaron-Field, who was the member of the "Shifting Perspective". Fiona is taking portrates of the expecting mothers who made up their mind to have a baby with Down's Syndrome, after the prenatal diagnosis test. I will post the babies with Down's Syndrome who have full of positive energies, and Richard would post the grown up and independent features of adults with Down's Syndrome so we can express our strong messages.Movie of Fiona Yaron-Field

"JDS news" January, 2017 issue of the Japan Down Syndrome Association.

23 Dec,2016

The file of report when I visited Myanmar.

Photo Shooting in U.K (Bath in 2014)Photo Shooting in Japan (Osaka in 2016)I visited Myanmar Down Syindrome Society (Yangon in Sep, 2016) Photo Shooting in Myanmar (Yangon in 2016)I visited Down Syndrome South Africa (Pretoria in Sep, 2017)Photo Shooting in SouthAfrica (Pretoria in 2017)I had a meeting with Richard Bailey (left) Mr. Fiona Yaron-Field (middle) who collaborates. (London in Sep 2017)I reserved the Gallery@OXO (London in Sep 2017 )OXO Tower with Gallery