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AVAILABLE NOW
New Calendars of Simon Marsden's Photography
The Haunted Realm - 2009
'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 & 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.'
Dracula - 2009
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."
Published by AMBER LOTUS PUBLISHING in the USA
www.amberlotus.com
neworder@amberlotus.com
Tel: 800-326-2375
or
order copies from www.simonmarsden.co.uk
Price £8.00 + postage & packaging
Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519
AVAILABLE NOW
New Calendar of Simon Marsden's Photography
The Haunted Realm - 2008
'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 & 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.'
Published by AMBER LOTUS PUBLISHING in the USA
www.amberlotus.com
neworder@amberlotus.com
Tel: 800-326-2375
or
order copies from www.simonmarsden.co.uk
Price £8.00 + postage & packaging
NEW BOOK
GHOSTHUNTER
- A JOURNEY THROUGH
HAUNTED FRANCE
Who better than Simon Marsden, the highly-respected author of ten books in the genre, published in five languages, to take us on a journey seeking out the spirits that haunt the châteaux, castles, abbeys and churches of France? No other photographer has the same passionate interest that has driven him through the landscapes of England, Scotland and Ireland, to the source of the Dracula legend in Romania, and the hidden, side of Venice. In this new volume, he invites us on an eerie tour of the French countryside, as exciting as it is unnerving. From Versailles and the châteaux of the Loire to Norman abbeys. Exploring the menhirs of Brittany and the Cathar castles of the Pyrenees. Discovering the secrets of the infamous Knights Templars (recently featured in the controversial book and film The Da Vinci Code) and the ancient lore of alchemy. His unique photographic reportage is accompanied by personal texts describing the disturbing stories of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena that still haunt these locations, as well as his own sometimes terrifying encounters with the supernatural.
Hardcover, 192 pages
140 black & white illustrations
To be published in October 2006 by:
FLAMMARION - FRANCE, LUXEMBOURG & BELGIUM
RANDOM HOUSE/RIZZOLI INTERNATIONAL - USA & CANADA
NILSSON & LAMM BV - NETHERLANDS
THAMES & HUDSON LTD - UK & ALL OTHER COUNTRIES
All the pictures in the book will be available for sale and for editorial use at www.marsdenarchive.com from 20th September 2006
Signed copies of the book will be available for sale at www.simonmarsden.co.uk from 20th September 2006
NOW AVAILABLE TO ORDER
3 DIFFERENT IMAGES AS
POSTERS
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| MA-I-088 Gothic Window, Castle Bernard, Ireland | MA-C-122 Duntroon Castle, Argyll, Scotland |
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| MA-G-808 Graveyard, County Mayo, Ireland | |
Size: 60 cms (24 ins) x 90 cms (36ins)
Price: £12.50 each
Postage & Packaging:*
| UK | EUROPE | USA/REST OF WORLD |
| £2.80 (1st Class) | £4.00 (Airmail) | £6.00 (Airmail) |
* If two or more posters are ordered the postage & packaging fee reduces by 50% each poster after the first (e.g. for 2 posters to UK - £4.20, 3 posters - £4.90 etc.)
Payment: online by credit/debit card via the PayPal facility from this page or by cheque payable to SIMON MARSDEN at the following address:
THE MARSDEN ARCHIVE
The Presbytery, Hainton, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN8 6LR, ENGLAND
Delivery: within 28 days
Enquiries: email info@marsdenarchive.com or telephone 00-44(0)1507 313 646
advanced booking recommended from:
Mr J Bartlett, 28 Lee Terrace, Blackheath, London SE3 9TZ
Please include SAE with your request
Telephone: 020 8852 7162
www.bromleycameraclub.org.uk
SIMON MARSDEN is an internationally recognised photographer who has devoted his life to capturing mesmeric images of ancient ruins and landscapes in his distinctive, gothic style. In this illustrated lecture he talks about his photographic techniques, how he plans his books, his beliefs, and the many strange and disturbing experiences he has encountered. He will also answer your questions and sign copies of his books.
BROMLEY CAMERA CLUB was founded in 1896 The first President was Samuel Blatchford Weber, a retired goldsmith, who was regarded as one of the best amateur photographers of his time. William Willis, a founder Vice President, was the inventor of the platinotype photographic printing process (using platinum salts instead of silver) which won him the Royal Photographic Society Progress medal. Early meetings were mainly technical lectures or practical demonstrations, either by experienced amateurs or photographic equipment manufacturers. In the summer outings were organised in order to take photographs, with cameras the size of suitcases and vast wooden tripods.
The Annual Exhibition is the highlight of the club's year and approximately 200 prints (a mixture of colour and black & white), and 200 colour slides are on show. On selected evenings an illustrated talk is given by a distinguished speaker attracting a large audience from the many photographic societies in the south east, as well as members of the general public.
SPECIAL OFFER from 22nd September 2005 - 6 free assorted Greetings Cards (130x180mm) with every new print, book or dvd order up until and including 31st October 2005
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| Fountain (SSM 004) | Beach (SSM 001) | Forelacka (SSM 006) |
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| Steps (SSM 014) | Tomb (SSM 002) | Window (SSM 003) | Rollright (SSM 015) |
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| Icknield (SSM 016) | Avebury (SSM 024) | Bamburgh (SSM 031) |
See this page for details of greetings cards.
Text by Val Horsler & Susan Kelleher
***AVAILABLE FROM 1st DECEMBER 2004
The long awaited DVD of
THE TWILIGHT HOUR
VISIONS OF IRELAND’S HAUNTED PAST
This is an all region PAL DVD
Price: £15.99
Postage & Packaging:
| UK | REST OF EUROPE | REST OF THE WORLD |
| £3 (1st class) | £4 (airmail) | £6 (airmail) |
Payment: online by credit/debit card via the PayPal facility from this page or by cheque payable to SIMON MARSDEN at the following address:
THE MARSDEN ARCHIVE,
The Presbytery, Hainton, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire
LN8 6LR, ENGLAND
Delivery: within 28 days of payment
Enquiries: email info@marsdenarchive.com or telephone 00-44 (0) 1507-313-646
Marsden Archive Print Sales
All the Marsden Archive images are now available as fine art prints. See this page for full details.
THE ENGLISH PREMIERE OF
THE TWILIGHT HOUR
CELTIC VISIONS FROM THE PAST
(82 minute documentary/drama based on Simon Marsden’s latest book of the same title.
Directed by Jason Figgis and featuring readings by John Hurt)
will be screened at
THE ELECTRIC CINEMA, 194 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London W11
Thursday 30th October 2003
(12.30 – 3.30pm)
Food & drink provided
Simon Marsden will be present to sign copies of the book
Film showing at 1.30pm prompt/Food served from 12.45pm
Tickets £15 per armchair or £20 per sofa
There are 98 leather armchairs and a pair of 2-seater sofas
(only 102 tickets available)
ALL TICKETS MUST BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE
For information please phone/fax 00-44-(0) 1507-313-646
or email info@marsdenarchive.com
The Twilight Hour will also be shown at THE CORK FILM FESTIVAL in Ireland on Saturday 18th October 2003
www.corkfilmfest.org
&
THE GHOST CONFERENCE 2003 in Nottingham on Saturday 1st November 2003
www.ghost-con.com
The Twilight Hour
Visions of Ireland’s Haunted Past
AN 80 MINUTE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The documentary follows Simon Marsden, the acclaimed photographer of the fantastic and the supernatural as he explores some of the darkest and most disturbing corners of Ireland. We see him working in the country’s myriad ruined castles, eerie mansions and ivy-clad mausoleums, collecting haunting photographs for his forthcoming book, THE TWILIGHT HOUR - Celtic Visions From The Past.
The film reveals the stories behind these ill-fated castles, mysterious ruins and ancient standing stones that have stood vigil through the ages, giving voice to the restless souls whose presence is both legendary and documented: the reckless child; the victim of a husband’s rage; the family of violent, murderous men; the simple housemaid who was frightened to death, and now returns to terrify those still living.
First-time director Jason Figgis of OCTOBER ELEVEN PICTURES was intrigued by Marsden’s abiding impression that he is often not quite alone during his solitary photographic journeys, and that he sometimes has the uncomfortable feeling that he is being followed by some unseen presence.
THE TWILIGHT HOUR attempts to capture this sense of another realm infringing on our own with the subtle and shadowy presence of ‘something not quite right’ that disturbs the natural world. This small essence which Simon describes as ‘almost intangible, but none the less real’ is suggested in the film by shadowy forms crossing shallow pools, eerie mirror reflections and the frenetic reactions of the natural world to its sinister presence.
From the very start of the production, in March 2001, Figgis tried to marry Marsden’s highly idiosyncratic approach to photography with a new style of digital film making. Figgis’s unique camera work has recreated the stark ultraviolet black and white which infuses much of Marsden’s work. This integrated technical and visual approach creates the sense that Marsden has become part of the landscape of his own creations, portrayed within his own photographic style. It often feels that his pictures have taken on a life of their own in which Marsden himself embodies the brooding presence he seeks to capture.
The colour footage never dispels the feel of the dark and atmospheric surroundings. Figgis utilised an array of dark hues (blues and greens) and then, at other points, a panoply of vibrancy and colour. Creative director Alan Foley worked intensively on the visuals, refining the film in post production. Paddy Gibbons’s sound enginering (designed by Ann.P.Murray and Jason Figgis) reinforces the sense of forlorn solitude, calling on the great richness of natural sound. The sighs of wind, the calls of birds and the flows of rivers add a forbidding dynamic to the magnificent, and sometimes disturbing ruins that Marsden visits.
Marsden shares both his incredible knowledge of supernatural folklore and his own innermost fears, while Figgis artfully recreates the alternate reality captured in Marsden’s mystical photographs. Acclaimed actor John Hurt adds to the macabre atmosphere with readings from Edgar Allan Poe.
THE TWILIGHT HOUR powerfully argues that unseen spirits can reside in the architecture of the past. It’s a guided tour through ominous places that generations have felt to be haunted. This glimpse into a profoundly disturbing nether world reveals an Ireland where the line between real and unreal is as indefinable as that between darkness and light. THE TWILIGHT HOUR brings us face to face with the frightening events and sensations that can await anyone who ventures alone into the unknown. It is a truly haunting film.
The Twilight Hour is a production of October Eleven Pictures in association with Piranha Bar and Pop Twist Entertainment Inc.
Sales of the film were recently launched by Doug Zwick of Pop Twist Entertainment at the Mipcom Festival in Cannes, with the moody, gothic film generating substantial international interest.
Zwick, a former senior programmer at the US Disney Channel, where his projects won numerous Emmys and an Academy Award, is spearheading The Twilight Hour’s commercial release. In addition to television and home video release, Zwick is looking for selected festival exposure and potentially a specialised theatrical release in selected territories.
Details of home video/dvd versions of THE TWILIGHT HOUR will be posted on this site as soon as they become available for sale.
Contact:
Doug Zwick, Pop Twist Entertainment (http://www.poptwist.com/twilight/), dzwick@att.net Phone: 00-1-818-990-8461
Jason Figgis, October Eleven Pictures, jasonfiggis@rci.ie Phone: 00-353-1-296-5998
A charity screening of THE TWILIGHT HOUR took place at the spectacular and exclusive setting of CHARLEVILLE CASTLE in Tullamore, County Offaly on Saturday 14th December 2002.
Approached along a flaming torch-lit driveway the doors of the haunted castle (which features in the film) were opened by masked footmen. The candle-lit evening with blazing log fires featured an exhibition, poetry reading, wine and canapes before a talk by Simon Marsden on the making of the film. The evening then continued with chat, food and drink in the cavernous basement of the castle.
The event was in aid of the restoration fund for the Charleville Castle Chapel roof.
For further information call CHARLEVILLE CASTLE on 00-353-0506-23040.