Marc Provins

  I've just had 24 hours in Morecambe staying with a friend who has restored an old seafront house. It’s a beautiful reinterpretation of the building, combining the best of the old with big picture windows and a modern spirit. Quite inspiring to wake up and be able to stare out at the watery horizon and the Lake District across the bay, with the light literally flickering and changing every few moments. I managed a short explore before the wild weather stepped in to stop me. I’ve written before about the battle British seaside towns have to reinvent themselves and Morecambe has a lot of people including me willing it on, but there is a long way to go still. However I like hunting down fragments of curious beauty tucked away in the neglected back streets. The title of this blog comes from a mug my Granddad (a photographer) had when I was young, and I can remember him laughing at the sentiment. It came to mind as Saul Leiter died this week just shy of 90 years of age. I ...

I know I'm guilty of finding the past in the present whilst photographing the world, but my trip to Derby seemed to be a particularly emotive of earlier eras. Although it is obviously a forward looking place, I imagine the rate of redevelopment isn't as frantic as in larger cities, so there is still plenty of evidence of the 1960's and 1970's. I particularly liked The City Art Gallery with it's beautiful stair-wells (3rd picture) and we stumbled across a preserved laundrette on the way through a housing estate to the university (2nd picture). My favourite picture though was the grey mosaics topping and tailing a modern window (4th picture) which contained it's own improvised abstract window dressing created out of cardboard boxes. Speaking of vintage, it is the last day to watch the excellent Tomas Leach documentary about Saul Leiter, the American photographer now in his 90th year. If you're not familiar with his work, have a look as ...