SIR SIMON MARSDEN, R.I.P.

I was unaware of Simon Marsden's passing this last January 22 until just recently. Born in 1948, Marsden was a devotee of ghosts and the occult from an early age. While growing up he lived in two remote estates in England that were reputed haunted locales.

For years he was a professional photographer, whose subjects were the macabre and supernatural places of his native England and Europe. He shot on infrared film, which gave his work a unique, otherworldly appearance.

My introduction to him was through one of his collections of photographs entitled Phantoms of the Isles. I was immediately captivated by his style, technique, and especially his subject matter.

The story below is from the June 2012 UK issue of AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER. It is a special "infrared film" issue, with articles on capturing this effect with a DSLR and post-production software processing.