Marc Provins

L1 City Centre L2 City Centre L3 City Centre, Everton, Vauxhall L4 Anfield, Kirkdale, Walton L5 Anfield, Everton, Kirkdale, Vauxhall L6 Anfield, City Centre, Everton, Fairfield, Kensington, Tuebrook L7 City Centre, Edge Hill, Fairfield, Kensington L8 City Centre, Dingle Toxteth L9 Aintree, Fazakerley, Orrell Park, Walton L10 Aintree Village, Fazakerley L11 Croxteth, Clubmoor, Gillmoss, Norris Green

I glide in and out of cities every day, travelling by train between Manchester and Liverpool and back again. Warrington is bang in the middle. I realised this week that my periphery series is a reaction to my commute and the view you get of the world from a train window. Inspired by these journeys, I have been exploring the periphery of towns and cities by foot, investigating the constant battle between nature and the manmade world. I’m using my camera to compile evidence, documenting a power struggle between the natural world we emerged from and the twenty first century human race that we have become. Every city is different and it would seem the periphery reveals something of the wealth, attitude and governance of the centre. Some cities fade slowly and remain cultivated for mile upon mile, others dwindle quickly into periphery and neglect, passing control back to nature. Accidental tableau present themselves, bucolic scenes emerge from the urban commotion, but nothing is standing

When the Trafford Centre opened 20 years ago I despised it. It's cheap, fake architecture, borrowing from every period in human history seemed the height of bad taste. Built by the uber corporation The Peel Group who own huge swaths of land in and around Manchester and Liverpool it was the ultimate two fingers to independent urban chic. Now I live 5 minutes drive away, or I can walk it in half an hour and I have a different relationship with it. I'm still pondering exactly what that relationship is, but as a photographer the walk is interesting and I've been using this journey to continue my Periphery series, exploring the struggle between nature and humans. As I write that sentence I know we are part of nature, but we seem determined to distance ourselves from the rhythms of day and night and the seasons.  I'm interested in how we attempt to shape nature, and how that control is fragile, a little neglect soon gives nature the upper hand.  I'm exploring

een twee drie A triptych of images made as part of my ongoing Periphery series, this time from Antwerp, Belgium. My starting point is the edge of towns and cities where I investigate t he relationship between the natural world and the built environment. This is essentially a document of the constant battle between humankind and nature and is a matter of degrees. Sometimes the flora is roughly tamed, occasionally perfectly manicured and my favourite scenario; nature is rampant and taking back control. 

Two leaves from the fatsia japonica in my front garden. One leaf is fresh growth, the other at least a year old, and looking the worse for wear after riding out our seven month winter and then being exposed to intense heat and strong sun.  I never stop marvelling at the resilience and fragility of the natural world. 

It's been a long, strange winter and this apparently delicate beauty has survived it, Beast from the East and all. It's one of several hellebores in my garden, a gift a few years ago from dear friends. All my plants have stories and associations and that's what makes the process of growing and nurturing so life affirming for me.

I've been moving this amaryllis around the house for a couple of weeks, hanging on to it so that I could make a still life. However my life has been anything but still and I've just not had the time. Over the intervening weeks it has changed, decayed and actually become more interesting, more sculptural. Like all my recent pictures the subject was planted and grown by me, nurtured on the windowsill, my winter garden. I construct an improvised daylight studio in my home and have lots of coloured backgrounds, enjoying the process of styling and building the still life. Strangely after I'd made these photographs I discovered that the background I used here is called Marrs Green, recently pronounced The World's Favourite Colour by paper makers GF Smith after an online survey. Aptly it was inspired by the Scottish landscape and Caroline Till, the editor of Viewpoint Colour Magazine, suggested the shade's success was down to people wanting to reconnect with the natura