Will Douglas photographs the Brentford Penguins – the football club that turns no child away

The Brentford Penguins are a football club founded in 2017 for children with Down’s Syndrome and other disabilities – it’s a place for kids to train, play competitive matches, but also socialise and have fun, bringing their family members along for the ride too. Recently, they were snapped in all their sporty glory by the photographer Will Douglas, a fellow football fanatic who wanted to prove that the Penguins were the perfect team for a sporty billboard campaign.

“Ever since I was a young boy, football and the community that surrounds it have played an essential role in my life,” says Will. “From being part of a team to exercising and socialising, it’s the most accessible sport on the planet.” It made sense therefore, that when Will eventually became a freelance photographer – a passion helped along by his dad and grandad introducing him to film photography as a child – that he would shoot sport campaigns, alongside some lifestyle projects too. “Photographing football felt like a natural progression,” he continues, “as the core of my work has always been about people coming together and bringing positivity into one another’s lives.”

So when Will first encountered the Brentford Penguins, he knew they would be a perfect team to shoot – “they embody all the positive attributes that football and community have to offer,” he says. “One of the first stories I heard about one of the children truly captured the essential work the Brentford Penguins do. A young boy was walking through a park where other kids his age were playing football on a Sunday. He told his mum that he wished he could join their team, but he believed they wouldn’t accept him because he has Down’s Syndrome. The Penguins turn no child away.”

Will’s dedication to spotlight a more representative talent roster is also down to another key influence in his childhood, his mum, who works as a learning support teaching assistant. “Her love of helping people from all walks of life has been an inspiration,” says Will. “She saw beyond disabilities and recognised individuals for who they are, nurturing them like her own children.” It’s his mother’s profession and his being friends with individuals with Down’s Syndrome that has allowed his personal outlook to go beyond the “stigmas” he sees in wider society and mainstream creative campaigns.

To kick things off, Will went to a Penguins training session, with the aim of getting to know the players and helping them to get comfortable with the camera. And then, with the help of some production partners in the industry, he organised a shoot at a football stadium. Getting to know the kids and putting them at ease was integral to the shoot, as demonstrated in the shots of Summer. Will points us to a portrait of her grinning: “She was so playful and cheeky, yet quite nervous to start,” he says. “To see her really come to life whilst shooting made my day.”

Approaching the shoot, Will was intent on having the production and final result feel akin to a major campaign – something that wouldn’t go amiss on a big billboard across London. With Tyson from Agency Playmaker, alongside the portraits, they devised some powerful action shots, though ones that felt possible for each of the kids’ abilities, tailoring each shot to each individual. It goes without saying, the shots feel like something you’d see from your premier league footballers, a shot from below, the boot of a player looking like it’s about to smash the lens to smithereens, to the vital touch before a shot on goal.

But if there’s one that stands out to Will most, it’s that of Ruben mid-air taking a powerful volley shot, like something you might expect promoting EA Sports 25. A particularly hard shot to catch, Will says that “it was so impressive how Ruben overcame his fears, to fly through the air for this big move”. The images of the Penguins are fun, playful, and powerful, proving that football and the community that comes with it are something everyone should have access to.