Trafford Centre Periphery

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 how that scenario presents itself in the world around us, examining the edges of towns, cities and now shopping centres too.

If you missed them here are some posts from the same series:

http://www.marcprovins.com/2018/09/antwerpen-omtrek.html

http://www.marcprovins.com/2017/12/ends-beginnings.html

http://www.marcprovins.com/2017/09/peripherie.html

http://www.marcprovins.com/2017/06/between-two-cities.html

Comments

A Lovely Pair of Pins

I knew the expression 'pins' referring to legs but had to Google what the Cockney rhyming slang comes from. It looks like 'pins & pegs', but there are some great alternatives like 'bacon & eggs' and 'dolly pegs'. I think I might start trying to incorporate more Cockney into my everyday speak, I do have London roots but they are more South (Saff) London than East London, where I think it originates. Anyway this is all to illustrate a new picture that sits quite neatly with an older picture. So brogues, legs and a sea view from my two main muses. This might be turning into a set... Oh by the way the top view is Morecambe Bay and the lower image is from The Wirral looking across towards Wales. The North West of England is a beautiful place, with some stylish residents.

Liverpool Periphery

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

Exquisite Corpse

I've gathered this project together here, although it really just started as instagram posts and me keeping myself entertained/ creative through the early weeks of the pandemic. On reflection, although it looks visually different from my usual work (black and white rather than a focus on colour) the themes that emerge are similar. This is how I've made sense of it: These images are inspired by the exquisite corpse parlour game first played by the surrealists around the time of the 1918 pandemic. In my interpretation each picture is a self-portrait made up of my silhouette and graphic elements found on my Lockdown daily walks in the suburban landscape around me. Living alone I soon realised the only human form I was seeing on a regular basis was my own shadow. I started making these images using my phone camera and a selection of simple apps at the beginning of the first Covid Lockdown and continued until things returned to some kind of normality in mid 2021. I didn’t leave my p

Marc Provins

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