Marc Provins

Barcelona

2012-03-02T10:50:00.000-08:00

I love my Olympus Pen, it really puts the fun back into making pictures and I know these aren't cutting edge art but I really enjoyed taking them and seeing what the world looks like photographed. All done on our college trip, first time that us tutors got to be creative too.

New Work

2012-02-24T10:16:00.000-08:00

These are a few images from new work I'm developing. It's provisionally called 1967 but might well change as it evolves. It's about time passing, the beauty of being human, home, photography, design, memory, Basildon, generations, printed material and me! That's the best I can do at the moment.

Rain, again.

2012-01-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

I really, really wanted to have a walk with my camera today but the weather was horrendous even by Manchester standards so we ended up in Trove in Levenshulme which is a little slice of Antwerp here in England. Wonderful.

Dog

2012-01-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

It stopped raining and we went outside.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T03:56:00.001-08:00

Time

2011-12-29T04:49:00.000-08:00

Time seems to pass at a different speed over the Christmas period.

Holy Island

2011-12-19T15:27:00.000-08:00

At last some time to make photographs, and test out my cute new camera. Driving off Holy Island just as the sun sets, all of us freezing cold but exhilarated.

Interview

2011-10-26T04:25:00.001-07:00

I have some work in the Manchester Contemporary art fair, thanks to Axis:

You can see a short interview with me here:

http://vimeo.com/30546423

Welsh diptych

2011-10-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

The percentage of pictures that I take by the coast seems to have reached an all time high, it's no good I'll have to move.

Animals & Celebrities

2011-10-05T13:23:00.000-07:00

Watching the Genius of Photography (episode 2 actually) today for the umpteenth time reminded me that I'd taken this photograph in the summer and not looked at it properly. I was reminded by Atget's images of Paris that were loved by the emerging surrealists, many of which were of course shop windows. Someone should make a series called The Genius of The Genius of Photography, it's so well made.

Exhibition Countdown - August 11

2011-08-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm involved in this project, please come along if you can, preview this Thursday from 6pm at Mad Lab in Manchester.

Mad Lab website

A Family Of website

Twice Removed Exhibition

Twice Removed

Title: Twice Removed
Location: MadLab
Description: Twice Removed is an exhibition of experimental new project by photography collective ‘A Family Of…’
Start Date: 12 August 2011
Start Time: 11:00
End Date: 3 September 2011
End Time: 17:00
Exhibition is not open on Sunday

The broad themes of the project are‘connection’ and ‘relationship’. Our working method for this exhibition reflects our collaborative approach: each member of the group producing a series of visual starting points, the project has evolved by each person visually responding to any of these to make work that creates a dialogue with each others work. As the project develops the images will make connections with other images, not just through common themes and visual styles, but also through collisions and provocations.

Twice Removed

An experimental publication will be linked to the exhibition: the starting point will be an A2 colour poster, each side printed with a selection of images from the project. With the introduction of a cut, or a variety of cuts and folds, the poster can be turned in to a ‘maze’ book, with pages. Each different combination of cut and fold will result in a different book, with a different sequence of images. As each book will generate a different narrative, new connections and themes will become evident in the work.

About ‘A Family Of…’

The nature of ‘A Family Of…”is to produce work as a true collective. There will be no individual authorship of work:- all images are a product of the collaboration, working in this way raises questions and challenges ideas around re-appropriation, copyright and the nature of collaborative work. The exhibition will lead viewers to detect and investigate group and individual concerns, themes and visual approaches.

Full Frame

2011-06-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

Funny how so many photographers are spending £2000 on a full frame DSLR, when there are plenty of really well made 'original' full frame cameras out there. Like this little fella my dad found at a car boot and posted to me this week. Shot a test roll on Sunday, scanned on Monday, what an impressive lens and every exposure spot on. I know it's vulgar to talk about cameras but it's a very important part of the process of making photographs. I've yet to meet the right digital camera for me... had a fling with a G5 and an on/off relationship with an LX-2, but DSLRs just don't appeal.

BEDFORD

2011-06-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

I spent a good few years of my childhood being driven around in the back of a Bedford van, pretty sure it was yellow though. I remember a blazing hot summer when we moved house from the town out to the country, making loads of journeys. But the thing that sticks in my mind was that I was allowed to rattle around in the back with the sliding door wide open to keep cool.

Anyway wanted to do this beauty proud when I found her recently.

MY WEBSITE

Lost in London

2011-06-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

I've no sense of direction and so these photographs were taken whilst stumbling around East London trying to find my way out. I'm also disorganised and so the negatives got lost under the desk pile after their journey from the processors for a few months and I've only just got around to scanning them.

I need a holiday

2011-06-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't realise I was collecting these, but I'm obviously drawn to giant ice creams...

Windows...

2011-06-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings followers. Strangely since my last post windows have stayed in my mind. They are such a perfect subject for photography as they present a frame from the outset. They also tap into the voyeuristic nature of the medium (well for me anyway) and give you a little snapshot of other peoples worlds through that reflective pane of glass. One image that comes to mind when thinking about photography and windows is Brett Weston's black and white picture of what is essentially a hole or a void. Abstract, beautiful and a bit scary, it makes me think about the big things in life.

Anyway here are two of my new pictures made in Manchester recently along with Brett's masterpiece.

Terraced

2011-05-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'll start a series on Manchester windows...

Other People

2011-05-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about other people's responses to my work recently. I find if I'm not taking many photographs myself or suffering from a lack of focus, I return to my older work and think about what I was trying to achieve and what pearls of wisdom were passed my way at the time.

For some reason I've returned to a body of work I called In-between, made in 2005 and exhibited in Antwerp in 2005/6. The work was all made on the London Underground and was an attempt at 'anonymous portraits'. One of the constant threads through my work is an examination of how we relate to the physical world around us, how we make and mark places and spaces and how we move around these.

This particular set of photographs was continuing to develop my thoughts on temporary and transient spaces. The work was actually made on a compact digital camera, with me standing on an Underground train platform, taking pictures of the passengers moving in and out of the stations, hence the blurring. The strange thing, and this is where other peoples reactions come in, is the time frame I happened to be doing this. I started in the January of 2005, but July of that year saw the terrorist bombing focussed around public transport targets. I was of course shocked and horrified, like everyone. However I continued making pictures through until September and so obviously experienced a marked change in atmosphere as well as a huge drop in people using the underground. It meant that when my show opened in the December of that year, everyone read the pictures as being about the bombings, especially as I had chosen to shoot quite low quality images that were blown up quite big, so they ended up having a CCTV aesthetic. Originally I had intended the work to be a video piece and this was really something carried over from shooting on video.

The reaction that fascinated me was the people at the opening tended to assume that the people in the pictures were either victims or perpetrators of the attacks. When presented with blurred or abstracted images, it would seem our brains search for clues and try to fill in the gaps. I love photograph's ability to do this and assume it is connected to it's association with truth or evidence, even in the digital age, where both of those are so easily manipulated. So for me this work ended up being more about how we interpret photographs and how we use slithers of visual information (gender, clothing, race, posture, etc) to help us 'read' the world and make decisions based on this.

I wrote this at the time:

In the contemporary urban world we routinely share spaces with unfamiliar
people who we will probably never see again. I am interested in this
experience and how we leave evidence of our presence. This might be in the form
of a dent in a seat, a memory in someone's mind, or a fleeting appearance on
closed circuit television. My recent work is concerned with 'in-between'. The images
are in-between photography and video, real and unreal.

The people in the images inhabit an in-between space, travelling from one location
to another. They stand framed by a door, a threshold between two places.
A narrative is suggested to the viewer in a blurred, frozen frame, who are they?
What are they doing? Where are they going? These are traces from a curious world
without natural light, the photographer's usual source of inspiration.

The End is Nigh...

2011-04-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Well the end of my exhibition at Untitled Gallery, Manchester. If you've not had a chance to get along you have until this Sunday to immerse yourself in my creative efforts. Enjoy!

www.untitledgallerymanchester.com

NEW HORIZON

2011-04-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of new images in my Horizon series... one is from the north, one from the south of England, one is male, one is female, any guesses, places or faces?

Some of the previous photographs can be seen here:

www.marcprovins.co.uk

This is not America...

2011-04-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

This is Helsinki. The finnish seem to have a penchant for large American cars. I felt like I was in a Stephen Shore photograph. The light was flat, even and short lived in autumn. It is unnaturally clean compared to Manchester with cultural shadows cast by Sweden in the west and Russia in the east.

Exhibition View

2011-03-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

Well just a little reminder that the exhibition 'In Front of Me' runs until the 17th April if you've not had a chance to visit yet.

www.untitledgallerymanchester.com/

www.marcprovins.co.uk

Here are a few images of the works in the gallery to whet your appetite. There are still some works available to purchase as well if anyone is looking for Mother's Day gift ideas (never could do the sales person bit!).

Exhibition Countdown

2011-02-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

Its very strange having someone write about your work, but I really like what Katie from Untitled Gallery has written about my relationship with photography:

In Front of Me is a selection of untitled works by Manchester-based photographer Marc Provins. Produced from 2009 onwards, the works are taken from Provins’ ongoing Found series in which the artist photographs commonplace objects of the built environment, transforming the quotidian by “looking at and eventually framing a simple subject, quietly observing the unnoticed.”

Provins’ use of medium-format film captures the depth of detail inherent in his discoveries, such as the flattened, dead hedgehog spread across a stretch of tarmac, or the candy-floss coloured fairground horse set against an exotic tiled backdrop. By pinpointing the detail of a subject, the artist is able to “unravel the complex and cluttered world we have made for ourselves,” especially when the man-made encounters nature such as the lone pink Rhododendron amidst a stone patio.

The convergence of light and shadow creates subjects that can appear seductive or humorous, such as the oversized ice cream with its luminous swirls, or the pair of retro deckchairs with a lustrous glow that accentuates the floral patterned surface. These simple, mundane objects act as a “collection of half-remembered experiences” and are a commentary on our act of viewing the world through a filter of distant memories and past experiences.

www.untitledgallerymanchester.com

www.marcprovins.co.uk

Click here for exhibition details

Melancholy Mannequin

2011-02-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

I rarely give my images titles but if I was to title this one it would be Melancholy Mannequin.

Taken exactly a year ago on one of my Devon visits, she was spotted gazing longingly out of a Sidmouth shop window, which looked as if it hadn't changed in several decades.

In Front of Me

2011-02-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

I have an exhibition coming up, all invited of course.

In Front of Me

5th March - 17th April

Preview: Friday 4th March, 6 - 9pm

Untitled Gallery

Friends' Meeting House

6 Mount Street

Bootle Street Entrance

Manchester

M2 5NS

www.untitledgallerymanchester.com

A big thanks to Crowdfunder and my followers for helping me raise money for frames and prints.

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/photography-exhibition-56

Black Dog

2011-02-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

I hope I get to see this exhibition before it finishes, otherwise I'll just have to get the book.

IN ALMOST EVERY PICTURE #9
www.kkoutlet.com/

Soft Eyes

2011-02-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

I seem to be going back in time at the moment and finding more value in photographers work from other eras. Is that something to do with getting older or just being out of step? I was really excited to read this quote by Henry Wessel in Photography After Frank, a collection of essays by Philip Gefter:

"Part of it has to do with the discipline of being actively receptive. At the core of this receptivity is a process that might be called soft eyes. It is a physical sensation. You are not looking for something. You are open, receptive. At some point you are in front of something that you cannot ignore."

Of course he's talking about the process of going for a walk with your camera and the state he needs to enter to take photographs. Well it sent shivers down my spine as that describes so articulately what I do. I've got a thing for hedges too!

Henry Wessel - Santa Barbara, 1977

Henry Wessel - San Francisco, 1972

Cube

2011-02-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

This work was shown in Cube Gallery, Manchester recently.

LINK TO CUBE

Portraits

2011-02-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

I think I must be feeling the pull of the sea... meet Clare and Daz my surfer friends, well occasional surfers anyway.

Horizon

2011-02-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

It's a year now since I started on this project, new images coming very soon.