A haunting photographer
A new documentary celebrates the ‘Gothic’ infrared photographer Sir Simon Marsden. With Halloween looming, Geoff Harris chats to the director
Geoff Harris speaks to the director of a new documentary on the infrared photographer Simon Marsden
Since his untimely death in 2012, Simon Marsden isn’t a name you hear quite so often, but a new documentary on the highly influential black & white/infrared photographer should rectify this. Jason Figgis, a documentary film maker originally from Dublin, has put together a fascinating movie tribute called Simon Marsden: A Life in Pictures, and I was lucky enough to attend its UK premiere in September. Part documentary/ part meditation/part celebration, the movie gives a real insight into Simon and his motivations; essentially this was a very romantic (in the classical sense) photographer and writer, with an abiding interest in history, myth and, of course, the supernatural. As he told AP back in 1984: ‘It was inevitable, really, that I would be interested in ghosts. I was brought up in a haunted house – Thorpe Hall in Lincolnshire – and my father, my brother and I have all been intrigued by ghost stories. Then I was sent to a Catholic boarding school...’
Simon also fully explored the creative possibilities of infrared film photography and darkroom craft, favouring a 24mm lens and a standard red filter plus a polarising filter to create his uncanny images.
Jason Figgis, whose cousin is the celebrated Hollywood director Mike Figgis ( Leaving Las Vegas, etc.), is currently hard at work promoting the movie, so AP caught up with him for a chat. ‘I first got to know Simon’s work entirely by accident in 1989, having come across one of his books when I wandered into the Easons news agency in Dublin to escape the rain,’ Jason explains. ‘I was fascinated so I kept looking out
for his books. I’d always been interested in photography too.’ Jason always wanted to be a liveaction documentary film maker, but he came to it via a circuitous route, after spells working in animation (including Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles and An American Tail:
Fievel Goes West) and going to business school. Once he set up a movie-making company, the Simon Marsden project became a much more serious proposition – but Jason didn’t pluck up the courage to contact Simon until 2001.
‘I found Simon’s agent through his book publisher Little Brown, and wrote him a long letter. I’d done some calligraphy at school so I used my best pen and handwriting! After only a couple of weeks, I got a call from Simon, and our friendship began from that moment.’
Disembodied voices
The pair began working together on a book project on the Celtic homelands of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and parts of France, with Jason helping to take photos of possible locations in Ireland. ‘It was difficult for Simon over there sometimes, as there was still bad feeling over the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He’d turn up in the Republic with his aristocratic English accent and be told to sling his hook – somebody even fired a shotgun over his head as a warning! Anyway, he liked my test pictures and invited me over to his house in Lincolnshire. The first time I mentioned a documentary project over dinner, he just looked at me and kept on eating, so I thought I’d overstepped the mark.’
Simon’s wife, Cassie, explained to Jason that a lot of people had spoken about doing
documentary projects in the past but they always came to naught, so she promised to have a word. It clearly worked. ‘When I went back to Ireland and we were arranging to look at locations, he said, “Jason, why don’t you bring that movie camera along and see what happens.” So not exactly a direct invite but to see if I’d get in the way or not.’
Jason worked with Simon for a couple of years on the film alongside other projects, and they had some memorable experiences. ‘Probably the scariest was hearing a disembodied female cry in the burned-out wing of the vast Palladian-style mansion, Woodlawn House, in the West of Ireland. Nobody else was in the building and I still can’t explain it to this day.’
Jason is keen to emphasise, however, that Simon never actually went out looking for ghosts per se. ‘What drove Simon was the romanticism of these ruined and very historic places. He discovered a way of capturing them in infrared which was popular with other people. If he went somewhere and he felt a dark presence, he would leave; if it was a warm presence, he would spend more time there.’
So did Simon ever shoot a ghost by accident, we wondered? ‘No, but he noticed a very strange light when shooting at Borley Church, near Borley Rectory, once dubbed the most haunted house in Britain. He saw it clearly through the lens, and it definitely wasn’t a smudge as he was very particular about cleaning them. We also saw a dancing light through his lens when working at Castle Leslie Estate in County Monaghan. It was invisible to the eye but you could definitely see it through the glass, and nothing appeared on the print. Explain that one if you can!’
Gothic romanticism
Even if you flatly deny the existence of ghosts or the supernatural, Jason passionately believes there is still much to enjoy in Simon’s work. ‘His imagery speaks for itself. He was the first photographer to really make an art form of infrared, which had been seen as a gimmick. He did it so beautifully, like an artist creating an effect, rather than just a photographer taking a photograph. He would spend days, weeks, months, working on a single image in his darkroom, and his family were allowed nowhere near. I was lucky enough to see him working in the darkroom once, and he used a brush to move over the surface of the developer to control how much light hit the exposure and bring certain areas to the fore. A lot of people try to emulate Simon’s look, but you can always tell the difference. Steven Spielberg once said that although he sees digital cinema as something very worthwhile, there is something about the lustre of 35mm and 70mm film that you cannot emulate with digital. Nobody can quite emulate what Simon achieved in the darkroom either, and the almost savant-like skill he had to create that final image. People should forget about the supernatural or giving Simon some stupid name like “the prince of the dark realm”, and just enjoy the Gothic romanticism.’
Another key element in Simon’s pictures was the carefully
researched locations. ‘He’d spend a lot of time researching the places he wanted to visit. It would really annoy him if we travelled 100 miles only to find two bricks in a field. So we knew when we got there it would be pretty special. The weather played a big part too. He would look at the cloud formations and if it was flat grey he’d consider going somewhere else. But we always seemed to arrive with nice cloud formation, which is one of the good things about shooting in Ireland, it’s always bloody cloudy... big bulbous cumulus clouds and stratus.’
So how did Jason avoid getting in the way of the master at work?
‘I would let him get his pictures, no matter how long it took, and when he was happy, we would re-enact for the film, so he’d be in a better mood as he got the picture already. It was a simple process, really, and it’s all explained in the movie.’
Simon’s books, which include In Ruins – the Once Great Houses of
Ireland and The Haunted Realm, were popular during his lifetime and can easily be bought secondhand online. His photography reached a much wider audience, however, when it was used as the album artwork for U2’s The
Unforgettable Fire – though not without some controversy. ‘U2’s guitarist, The Edge, found one of Simon’s pictures and assumed the photographer was long dead so it was in the public domain.’ Jason explains. ‘Instead of doing their research, they just plagiarised it on the cover. Simon being Simon he demanded recompense, but it was all sorted out amicably.’
A fitting tribute
Jason remained friends with Simon until his death, planning various projects, one even involving Uri Geller, who Jason knew well. ‘ Those two would have been a great duo. Uri is so high energy, while Simon had a very aristocratic bearing, laid back and humorous – like the odd couple! I went on to make other horror films and documentaries and when Simon passed away, it gave me the impetus to finish the movie as a fitting tribute to him. I spoke to Cassie his wife and she agreed, even if it only ended up being for the family to cherish.’
Fortunately Jason was able to get backing for the movie from various investors and Marsden enthusiasts, including Gray Levett, founder of Nikon specialist store Grays of Westminster. ‘I am a big fan and supporter of Simon’s hauntingly beautiful work and supplied him with much of his camera equipment over the years,’ Gray tells AP. ‘I think he was the greatest exponent of black & white infrared photography in the world.’
At the time of going to press, Jason is currently on the festival trail with the movie and has DVD distribution for the international market (details to be confirmed). ‘ There will be a special screening at the Royal Photograhic Society (RPS) HQ in Bristol early in 2019 with video on demand planned for later this year.’ Keep reading AP for updates on this project.