French photojournalist Thomas Girondel recounts the story of Yurii Korotun, a twenty-five-year-old Ukrainian professional skateboarder who teaches the sport to refugee children in Hannover, Germany, to help them forget about the war. Skateboarding becomes a therapy.
As a skateboarder, you have to be incredibly focused: finding your balance, keeping a tense core, staying upright. There is no time to stop and think. The grief over a loved one or the trauma of war back home vanish for a moment.
I met the profession...
