Sir Simon Marsden was an English surreal architecture photographer who started his journey while working in London as an assistant to the Irish photographer Ruan O’Locklain who specialised in film stills and record covers.

Marsden learned learned his darkroom skills from O’Lochlain’s wife Jackie Mackay who was was a master printer who had worked with Yousuf Karsh. Three years later, he travelled to the States where he bought a bus ticket and toured the country taking photographs.

He then spent two years in New York, where he had several exhibitions. On his return to Britain in 1974 he concentrated on the haunted sites which became his speciality.

Over the years he travelled widely in Britain and Europe and created his unusual style by using infrared film which gave his images their ethereal, haunting atmosphere.

But it was in the art of printing that he really excelled.

On one occasion, while working at the Rollright Stones, the Neolithic and Bronze Age site at Long Compton, Warwichshire, Marsden suddenly felt a ‘force’ which catapulted the camera out of his hands. He later realised he had bruises all down one arm, and was convinced that it had been a supernatural experience.

More information can be found about the artist here and some of his works can be found below.