Marc Provins

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 ami

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.

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

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 /

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

This work was shown in Cube Gallery, Manchester recently. LINK TO  CUBE

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

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