Simon Marsden

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Sir Simon Neville Llewelyn Marsden (born December 1st, 1948, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire) is an English photographer and author. He is known best for his uncommon black-and-white photographs of “eerie” sites and places throughout Europe.

[edit] Life and work

Marsden attended Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire as well as the University of Paris. 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.

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. 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.