Simon Marsden

Sir Simon Neville Llewelyn Marsden, 4th Baronet (born December 1, 1948, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire) is an English photographer and author. He is known best for his uncommon black-and-white photographs of allegedly haunted houses and places throughout Europe. He succeeded his brother as baronet of Grimsby in County Lincoln in 1997 . [Burke's Peerage]

Life and work

Marsden attended Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, as well as the University of Sorbonne. Afterwards, in the years 1969–71, he worked as a professional photographer. First of his works were published in photography periodicals at the end of the seventies. Two grants from the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1975 and 1976 allowed Marsden to undertake extensive journeys throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the United States, photographing the architectural subjects and varied landscapes he encountered.Fact|date=May 2007

Marsden’s particular interest has always been with “eerie” motifs like graveyards and old ruins, as well as with the legends and tales that are often connected with these places. Yet the gloomy atmosphere of Marsden’s pictures is not based on careful choice of the motifs alone, but to the same degree on Marsden’s photography technique, which includes the use of infrared film.

Marsden’s photographs already became world-famous and are exhibited at a large number of museums, amongst others the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, the "Bibliothèque nationale de France" in Paris, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England ["The Twilight Hour - Celtic Visions From the Past", Marsden, Simon. ISBN 0 316 64537 0] . Marsden released various illustrated books, and completed a variety of remittance works. The latter have, amongst other things, been used for the cover of English Dark Metal band Cradle of Filth’s second album Dusk and Her Embrace, as well as an advertisement for the Japanese manufacturing firm Toshiba.

Today Marsden lives with his wife, Lady Marsden, and family in an old rectory on the Lincolnshire Wolds ["The Twilight Hour - Celtic Visions From the Past", Marsden, Simon. ISBN 0 316 64537 0] .

Work (selection)

*"In Ruins," 1980
*"The Haunted Realm," 1986
*"Visions of Poe," 1988
*"Phantoms of the Isles," 1990
*"The Journal of a Ghosthunter," 1994
*"Beyond the Wall," 1999
*"Venice—City of Haunting Dreams," 2001
*"The Twilight Hour—Celtic Visions from the Past," 2002
*"This Spectred Isle—A Journey through Haunted England," 2005

External links

* [http://www.simonmarsden.co.uk/ Simon Marsden’s official Web site]
* [http://www.marsdenarchive.com/ The Marsden Archive]

References