Determined to get away!

I met up with Julie in Newcastle today. I had a good train journey into the city.

It was raining on and off as you can see in my Blip.

We went to the Newcastle Arts Centre in Westgate Road to see the RPS Documentary travelling exhibition based on the 2021 prize winners in the Documentary Photographer of the Year competition.

The work of three photographers is on show.

I was very taken with Belonging by Debsuddha. He has photographed his elderly aunts who are both albino and live in West Bengal. They depend on each other for support and their relationship is sensitively shown. I was very moved by the images.

I have seen David Collyer's All in a Day's Work because he spoke to the Hexham Photography Group last year. He shows the exhaustion and distress of NHS workers during the early months of Covid from his position as a practitioner on the team.

The third project, by Aishwarya, was more enigmatic and puzzling. To quote "using photography and bookmaking, ka Dingiei allegorically explores repercussions of habitat loss, environmental extraction, and indigenous issues in Lama Punji, a Khasi village situated at the border of India and Bangladesh that is a site of significant sand and stone mining.  

The images are much better seen on the web - aishwarya art - because the lighting in the exhibition hall is very bright and causes reflections on the glass over the prints. However, I am unsure where an allegorical project fits into Documentary Photography.

We had a pizza in a nearby Italian restaurant. Adequate but not brilliant. (I have been totally spoilt by the cuisine last week!) It was a good place to have a catch up.

When I walked back to the Central Station, I was struck with the way the sculpture was striding purposefully towards the scooter.