2009 Calendars
Simon Marsden
Simon
Marsden produces quite astounding and beautiful photographs which attempt to
embody the mystery which permeates abandoned castles, alleys at night,
graveyards and secluded woodlands. For Marsden we have suppressed the sense of
“otherness” in the name of science and technology and through his photographs
he attempts to communicate his vision of this lost world. His photographs are
beautiful and haunting, sometimes tinged with darkness, others filled with
light and texture, they are always evocative.
His
two calendars for 2009 are superb examples of his work.
Haunted Realm
From
the very beginning of recorded time all the great civilizations of our world
have believed in the supernatural in some form or other. Simon Marsden’s
startlingly atmospheric black and white photographs reveal this hidden world
and his ghostly and beguiling images transport the viewer to a different realm.
Accompanying the photographs is text which describes the apparitions that have
been reported at each site, and the strange and often macabre real-life events
which are said to lie behind them. Whether you make of these accounts, the “
presence” of the images are powerful and the work compelling.
Dracula
The
vampire, a creature clad in darkness and legend, has haunted man's imagination
for centuries. None more so than Dracula, Bram Stoker's fictional count, who
leaves a crumbling ancestral castle in his native Transylvania for the shores
of Victorian England, seeking out innocent victims in his insatiable thirst for
human blood. Universally acclaimed as the most frightening gothic novel ever
written, the book is based on the infamous deeds of the real life medieval
tyrant Vlad Tepes or "Vlad the Impaler," and the mysterious tales of
the strigoi, the Romanian word for the undead.
Sir
Simon Marsden, the modern master of gothic images, has sought out and
photographed many of the sites associated with both the real and the imagined
Dracula. The Dracula 2009 wall calendar features Marsden's evocative
photographs accompanied by details of their chilling history and extracts from
the novel itself.
"The
Vampire lives on," wrote Stoker, "and cannot die by the mere passing
of time." This is a superb gift for
anyone with an interest in vampires; it not only offers some truly superb
photography but includes unique images of key locations related to the Vampire
legend with a fascinating and informative text.
Each
of these products while certainly useful as calendars are works of art in their
own right and are worthwhile as collectibles and photographic collections.
While the calendar may become dated, the images are timeless.
These
are published by Amber Lotus in the US
(http://www.amberlotus.com),
but it is certainly recommended that you buy them direct from Simon himself at
http://www.simonmarsden.co.uk and while you are there have a
look at his astounding website. It is packed with all sorts of interesting
products including the highly respected Marsden Archive, which specializes in
the fantastic and the supernatural and includes Simon Marsden's extraordinary
and powerful black and white images which extensively cover the British Isles,
Ireland, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Romania and the USA.