Marc Provins

I've never really worked out why but my brain gets in a tangle and my tongue tied when I have some time off work. It only lasts for a week or so and then I return to normal. I've come to accept it but it is frustrating and I hear myself saying "thingybob" and "what's his name" a lot. Just had one of those weeks. The pictures are from a couple of lovely days with close friends in the static caravan in Grange-over-Sands, I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something.

I managed to catch the excellent Format Festival in Derby last week, just before it closed. It has quietly become a major player over the years, representing the best British and international photography, displayed in a range of intriguing venues dotted around the city. I like picking up the brochure and using the map to navigate around town, a place that I only ever visit for the festival. This makeshift tour provides an insight into the place itself as I travel north, south, east and west, getting a bit lost, taking pictures as I go. Like all cities in Britain it has many sides, but I must say that this time it did seem to be wearing some of it's social problems more prominently than last time. Just like in my home town of Manchester there appears to be a growing population of homeless people and some quite visible class 'A' drug imbibing going on right in the centre. This was being nervously observed by perturbed looking office workers eating their sandwiches in the sun