Marc Provins

Whenever I lack inspiration or creative direction I head for the coast. Yesterday was hot, and the first proper day of my summer break so I packed my camera, got in the car and headed west. An hour later I was in New Brighton, the bit of The Wirral that looks over the Liverpool skyline. It also has it's own place in photographic history being the location for Martin Parr's The Last Resort. It would seem that the intervening 30 years have been kind to the place and it looks and feels reinvented, even Parr would be hard pressed to update his series now.  Liverpool has a magnetic pull for me and so after a couple of hours exploring and seeing the city across the water I zipped through the tunnel to see things from the other side. This journey in itself is a novelty, how many cities in the world can be approached in this way I wonder? It reinforces the grandness of the place, the architecture always makes me feel like I'm in a capital city and...

We have now entered the dark months of the year here in the northern hemisphere and after hundreds of years we still mark the festival associated with this shift into winter. Halloween apparently takes it's name from the day set aside for  remembering the dead, which also included saints (hallows). It's  Christian and Celtic origins may have got a little muddled over the years but some elements have persisted like carving a pumpkin and apple bobbing because of the autumn harvest. It is more likely these days that most people get their plastic pumpkins from Quality Save or Tesco, but I'm proud to boast that I've grown these crops this year for the first time, so will be partaking in both carving and bobbing. 

A strange but interesting day out yesterday... We went to explore Birkenhead on the Wirral, the bit right opposite Liverpool city centre. It turns out to be just the kind of place that I love to investigate, a once grand place with stunning architecture but sadly left to decline over the last 30 years or so. Grand nineteenth century and early twentieth century statement buildings buffered up against low grade 80's 'sheds'. Central Park, New York is based on Birkenhead's which is said to be Britain's first publicly funded park. So it turns out to be exactly the kind of place my other half/ assistant doesn't like to visit so I wasn't allowed to stay long, and we hopped on the ferry to Liverpool. So a few pictures from our journey, but watch this space for when I get to re-visit Birkenhead alone.