Marc Provins

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I'm increasingly nostalgic for a time before mobile phones.

London is a very big city  You could lose yourself in London You could find yourself in London

My blog is usually a fairly positive, upbeat place but today I want to share a concern that I've been dwelling on recently, wondering how I can do something about it.  Over the last year or two I've been quietly smarting, watching as loved buildings in my city are swiftly dismantled and removed permanently from the streetscape. Manchester is definitely a better city now in nearly every way than the city of the early 1990's when I moved here. However the rate of development seems to be at a tipping point and I think we are starting to lose the character of the place. Who gets to judge the value of architecture? The most loved buildings often don't win design awards and most worryingly it seems to be money and connections rather than merit or any sense of philanthropy that shapes our built environment.  I feel particularly strongly about a proposed development by two ex Manchester United footballers that will involve the demolition of a large swath of inter

Apparently psychological studies have shown that single people tend to see happy couples everywhere, whereas people in a relationship tend to see happy single people. Part one of this post can be found here: Part 1

Apparently psychological studies have shown that single people tend to see happy couples everywhere, whereas people in a relationship tend to see happy single people. Part 2 of this post is to be found here: Part 2

The car radio was on in the background during a short journey the other day, when I heard the line 'that place between above & below'. From that point on I was transfixed by the programme Soul Estuary: The Mouth of the River (Radio 4), a poetic remembering of growing up by the river and being influenced by the landscape, written and presented by Alan Read. That simple phrase seemed so poignant, a description of something epic - where we are right now in this moment, this place.

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

I'm quietly pleased and rather surprised that I've managed to maintain this blog for so long, it has become my visual diary, a constant in my life and an archive of my picture making over the last few years. Sometimes I can find words to accompany the photographs, sometimes not.  So today some quiet images from my friend's apartment, my home for the last six days, which was calming and inspiring in equal measures.  Thank you so much for looking in and please keep returning. Best wishes, Marc

I love the summer, when I have time to walk slowly and really see the world around me. 

I have a love/hate relationship with gallery spaces