Marc Provins

I've often found the book I'm reading permeates into the pictures I make.  I suppose that's what most creative undertakings are, a meeting of ones internal world and the world happening around us. I've become a little obsessed with science fiction of late and I'm now reading Isaac Asimov's robot series written in the 1950's and set 1000 years in the future. They are beautifully descriptive books full of ideas about humanity and shockingly farsighted, imagining equivalents of the internet and FaceTime, but also social and attitudinal changes as a result of technology. I remember my dad reading the books when I was a child, and being fascinated by the tatty paperback covers that were illustrated with gaudy 1960's ideas of a far future. Ironically I'm reading them on an e-reader, a cultural shift in itself. When I started to look through my pictures from Antwerp I felt I could see the influence of the ...

Four of us have just spent five days in Sherwood Forest in a wooden lodge. This was our view from the deck, a scattering of silver birch and the forest beyond. It was west facing and so  each evening we  were treated to a sunset, the light subtly pulsing through a spectrum of hues before dimming to reveal the stars. We nearly always gravitate towards the coast for holidays and so initially it seemed strange to be inland, until I realised that being around so many trees can have a similar grounding influence as staring out to sea; Swaying trunks in strong winds replace the lapping rhythm of the tide and listening to the power of nature, whether it is shingle being dragged across a beach or branches rustling and creaking, is still humbling and awe inspiring.  We stayed just on the edge of Edwinstowe where Major Oak stands, a tree that is believed to be more than a thousand years old, and is part of the Robin Hood legend....