A review by sydnapped
Journal of a Ghosthunter: In Search of the Undead from Ireland to Transylvania by Simon Marsden

5.0

Being a lifelong taphophile, i've spent a lot of my free time in cemeteries. Wandering down worn cemetery paths, admiring cemetery architecture, exploring about graves and tombs, stopping at every headstone which had a story to tell, and so naturally, i've always had a romantic fascination with cemetery photography. I've flipped through my fair share of cemetery books, many with artful, introspective and intimate black and white photographs quite beautiful in their own right, but never have I been so enchanted by a cemetery photography book as I was with Journal of a Ghost Hunter.

Simon Marsden's photographic work is absolutely incomparable to anything else I have ever seen, and not just when it comes to photographs that truly capture beauteous melancholy of ancient gravesites and forgotten funerary grounds, but also in capturing the transcendental nature of the supernatural domain.

In most cemeteries there's a tranquil sense of being merely a guest among a city of the resting, a setting of peaceful reflection, but with Marsden's Journal of a Ghost Hunter: In Search of the Undead from Ireland to Transylvania comes undeniable corporeal impressions of being in another dimension, among the mystical spirit world, in that obscure world of dreams. It's very much that he has captured those parallel portals opened at just the right time in all of these moonlit graveyards and mysterious ruins and you feel that realisation through his haunting photographs.

The sensation in fact, is that you could just leave your reverie behind and simply step right into and become part of that eerie, romantic atmosphere if you were so inspired, and you just may be.

Marsden's unusual artistry of using infrared film enforcing his masterful style of photography helps capture beautifully escapsulated images of forgotten tombs, abandoned ruins and eidolic landscapes from his year-long traverse across Southern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany and Romania in their most ethereal, eternal form.

Accompanying his atmospheric images is his own keen prose along with lore and documentation relating to the sites. I was sad to hear of Sir Simon Marsden's passing earlier this year in January and though this volume is no longer produced, I wanted to do my part to introduce his work to others who would appreciate the poetic insight Journal has to offer.

Marsden once said that he wanted to inspire people to not take everything around them at face value, and with this collection you understand why - the languages of ancient landscapes and the spirits of ruins are reflected here and truly the stuff to inspire ethereal poetry and esoteric philosophy. If you have had just about enough of introspection from typical cemetery books, I implore you to take a serious look at this profound collection of historic burial sites presented in an atmosphere unequalled and not seen anywhere else, you don't just see it, you crawl into it, you're pulled into it.

Here is where you leave the earth that ebbs behind and learn about the dreams which bridge to that which has been opened, but hardly seen.