Marc Provins

News: For the last ten months or so I've been collaborating with two other photographers; Michael McGinley and Mike Stephens, exploring how our work overlaps and works together. We are now taking this experiment further by creating an exhibition  of our works  in Arles, France. This is curated as a collaborative piece and is the first presentation of the ideas and visuals we have been developing together.  We are all exploring landscape photography, responding to a changing world and attempting to find fresh ways to express our responses. For me this is an extension of my Periphery project; investigating the relationship between humankind and the natural world through the fringes of cities.  We are part of the Voies Off festival which runs alongside Les Rencontres d'Arles: http://voies-off.com/index.php/en/ So if you happen to be in Arles between the 29th July and the 4th of August, please come and see us and our works at Galerie Des Arènes: A S

Admittedly this is a little after the event but I use my blog as an archive of my creative work, so I'm adding a little update of a collaborative exhibition early this year with printmaker Anne Liddell.  More comprehensive information can be found here: https://gentledelirium.com

Walking east from Manchester city centre, passing through the remarkable, unstoppable march of regeneration. Roaming through Ancoats, New Islington, Bradford, Beswick. Street names with history: Silk, Naval, Temperance, Helmet, Dark Lane. The outer edge of the city is extending so quickly you can almost see it moving in front of you. The battle between the natural world and humankind playing out in those fertile fringes. Dramatic, low, intense January sun transforming all in it's path, the world feels alive; beauty, debris, light, shade, natural, manmade. High contrast. 

I've a German friend who calls the light in Manchester 'greyshine'. It's our most common look, soft diffused light bouncing back off a ceiling of velvety grey cloud. There's no point doing anything other than embracing it if you live here. It changes everything, barely a shadow to be seen, the world looks still, almost suspended. These images were made on just such a day. I walked what has historically been the southern edge of the city centre, now a huge building site, with skyscrapers going up at a pace, blurring the corridor that separated Hulme from town. I lived in Hulme during one of the regeneration waves, it was the first house I owned and there was nothing there except a massive Asda, having been cleared of the architecture from the previous regeneration attempt just twenty or so years before. I was intrigued by the change, my interest being the struggle for control between nature and the human race and how this collision presents itself in the world