Contemplating his work

Today we had a meeting of the North East group of the Documentary and Visual Journalism Group of the Royal Photographic Society! A few of us met a few weeks ago to decide how to proceed, but today was our first "proper" meeting.

Gordon had the great idea of meeting at the Oriental Museum in Durham City. There is an exhibition by photographer, James Sebright, in collaboration with writer, Rachel Cochrane. Together they visited the Nissan car works at Sunderland and tried to understand the impact of this factory on the lives of the community and of individuals who worked/had worked for Nissan.

James came along today to discuss his work with us. Rachel has written a set of haikus about the factory.

It was so interesting to be able to listen to James and discuss his work. As you might expect, there were major constraints placed on him by the company about what could be published. I think he's done a great job and would recommend that people within reach of Durham go and see the exhibition.

The Nissan factory is on the edge of Sunderland, my home town, and has provided a lot of jobs in an area of high unemployment.