Marc Provins

Like hydrangeas, camellias remind me of grandmothers and the past. I think of them as typically British, a staple English garden flower, but just like the hydrangea they originate in Asia. Whether you realise it or not you probably have some camellia in your home. Tea is made from the camellia leaf, another cultural link between Asia and Britain. They need an acid soil to thrive, so a low pH and they put on a good exhibition of colour at the beginning of spring, helping us emerge from the short days of winter. These pictures were made in the Camellia House at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park on the day the clocks went forward, a pocket of beauty within a whole garment of visual stimulation. 

Following on from a post a few weeks ago about my use of colour, composition and possible influences, I've a couple more creatives who I think have exerted some sway over my own approach to image making. One from a few decades ago, one contemporary but in my mind both connected by a winding and brightly coloured aesthetic thread.  Viviane Sassen's work walks a stylised path between fine art and fashion photography, being simultaneously both and neither. She's not afraid of colour and splashes it around with aplomb. Just when you thought there was nothing new to be done with the medium she brings a fresh twenty first century surrealism to the table (or should that be light-box or screen?). She uses bodies like props, limbs from several people forming new imagined beasts, albeit beautiful beasts. She seems to play with our lack of trust in digital photography, has it been Photoshopped or is it clever staging?  Guy Bourdin could be Sassen's photograph...