http://www.marsdenarchive.com/
http://joefaraceblogs.com/the-wood-effect-in-infrared-photography/
On his 21st birthday Simon Marsden was given a gift of a Leica IIIg 35mm camera by his father and so began his lifelong passion with photography. After studying photography and printing in London he travelled the world capturing images and developing his own personal style. On returning to Britain he focused on capturing images of places of historical significance developing a speciality in this. His images include those of churches, graveyards, gargoyles, ruins and landscapes of often haunted locations. He had a fascination with the supernatural and would travel throughout Europe to find his locations. His images had a haunted spooky atmosphere and this was partially achieved through his use of infrared film. This film was unusual at the time but gave his images their other worldly quality. His work has been widely exhibited and he has published his images in a number of books including ‘The Haunted Realm,’ ‘Venice’, ‘This Spectred Isle’ and ‘City of Haunting Dreams.’ And was also the subject of a documentary ‘The Twilight Hour’, He passed away aged 63 in 2012 but his images taken over the last 40 years have been collected into ‘The Marsden Archive’ and form a unique collection of beautiful ethereal black and white images.
This image is from The Marsden Archive from the ‘Gnarled Trees & Forbidding Woods’ category and was taken at the The Icknield Way, Oxfordshire , England. It is an image taken looking along a path in a dense area of hedges, trees and shrubs. It captures the sunlight breaking through the foliage and casting shadows along the path. The image has been taken to allow the perspective of the path to lead the viewer into the centre of the image and so create perspective depth in it. Then a vanishing point has been included where the path disappears into the horizon. This feature creates drama as well as interest in the image adding to its ethereal feel. What I particularly like about this image is the way the vegetation, the leaves and grasses are white or near white and so much lighter than the surfaces of the tree trunks and branches which are considerably darker. This effect is called the ‘Wood Effect’ after the American physicist who discovered it and is considered the father of infrared and ultraviolet photography by many. The effect gives foliage a dream like winter wonderland look caused by the way infrared light is reflected off the foliage.
This image is from The Marsden Archive from the ‘Fantastic follies’ category and was taken at The Temple of The Winds, The Neale, County Mayo, Ireland . It is a landscape image with the trunk of a large tree on the left foreground and a freestanding folly set on a brick mount positioned further back in the image. The leaves of the tree hang downwards at the top of the frame and encircle the temple on all sides. This creates a frame for it to direct viewer’s attention towards it. The infrared light makes the foliage near white and so makes the frame high lit against the dark background of that part of the sky. The image produced is one of strong contrasts between light and dark making it very dramatic.
This image is of the Topiary, at Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire, England which is from The Marsden Archive’s ‘Secret gardens’ category. The image shows a view of the gardens of a large stately home. Positioned prominently in view are several sculpted bushes and the manor house can be seen in the backgrounds. But the most eye catching feature is the four geese in the foreground that are walking towards the photographer. The perspective of the camera has been taken from a low down position relatively close to the bushes so that they appear to be very large, in comparison to the manor house in the distance. What I find fascinating about this image is how the technique of infrared film is used to make the geese so prominent in the image and immediately draw my eye to them. This is due to the Wood effect and the way it makes the foliage and grass near white compared with the dark geese who reflect the light differently. The juxtaposition of this sharp contrast makes the geese stand out clearly in a dramatic way.
This image is from The Marsden Archive from the ‘Crumbling castle’ category and is of Lowther Castle in Westmoreland, England. The image taken using infrared film shows a once impressive castle that is now in a state of disrepair. The walls are still intact but there appears to be no windows or roof. The sunlight can therefore shine directly through the window spaces giving the castle a rather eerie look as if someone has switched on all the lights. This gives the impression that the castle is haunted. The vivid contrasts in the sky add to the dramatic feel of the image. The overgrown vegetation covering much of the steps leading up to the castle are white, due to the Wood Effect and this gives the image a spooky supernatural atmosphere.
Influence and Summary
I have found Marsden’s work with infrared photography particularly interesting as in my project I have been researching the extreme sensory experiences that particular animals have that allow them to experience the world in different ways compared to others. Geckos are a group of small reptiles that are active at dawn and dusk and have evolved from lizards. However as they moved into nocturnal niches they developed night vision to help them hunt and find mates but only their cone cells in their eyes evolved and not the rod cells. This allowed them to have cells that were much more light sensitive and let them see infrared light. Their extreme night vision therefore allows them to see clearly in colour under conditions of darkness where humans could not see anything and infrared photography allows us to share in the gecko’s sensory experience.
I have therefore been inspired by the unusual beauty and uniqueness of Marsden's infrared images to try this technique myself to capture landscape images in infrared. One of the images I have taken is shown below, I have adapted it in photoshop to black and white to remove the red tint. As I am using an infrared filter rather than a converted camera I had to use a long exposure of 30 seconds and this prevents me from capturing animals in my image as they will not stay still for such a length of time. I have captured a landscape image of the trees in my garden with the sky behind them. The unique and unusual way the foliage and sky appear using this technique is amazing, quite different from the way it appears in visible light. The foliage on the trees is white and much more intense and dramatic as it contrasts with the dark wooden parts of the branches, due to the different way this material reflects infrared light. The sky too also looks much darker than would be seen with visible light and this adds mood and atmosphere to the image. This image reveals a landscape that is normally invisible to us and shows us how animals like the gecko that can see near infrared light view their world.
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