Marc Provins

Two photographs shot through glass, one is a shop window the other a display case in a museum. One is deliberately obscured to try to hide the cable mess of the modern world, to present a slick front. The other a perfectly crafted cube designed to display treasures, accidentally smeared by the cleaning process. The natural world creeps into both images; a reflected sky, a burst of sunlight. Both pictures make me think about human fallibility and our attempts to control the world,  someone ordering the wrong window film,  the cleaner doing their work and leaving their mark.

3 days, 2 nights, 73 students and 7 staff; Our annual college trip to London has been and gone with everyone returned safely to their homes slightly more cultured and worldly-wise than they were on Monday morning. Seeing so many exhibitions and visiting so many galleries and museums in a short stretch of time caused me to ponder the way we preserve and display objects and artefacts deemed important to human culture. I started to photograph the shadows and reflections cast by display cases - an  ethereal,  accidental moment of beauty. I was touched to see Tony Ray-Jones' notebooks lovingly displayed in The Science Museum's new branch of the Media Museum. I became quite obsessed with studying the specialist archival display materials available to show but not damage these personal pieces. I wonder what he would have made of his ideas, reminders, and plans scribbled by hand being displayed in glass cases to be scrutinised by generations born after hi...