As we take our first tentative steps into the terra incognita that is the New Year, I would ask you to spare a thought for that humble item, the wall calendar.
There is a wonderful phrase used to describe something that seems to have no purpose for being: “Neither use nor ornament.” It’s used to describe an item (and sometimes a person) that has no apparent function or purpose, and does not even have beauty or attraction going for it. I would argue that a wall calendar is the epitome of both use and ornament: not only does it serve a very useful function, it is often a very attractive item in its own right. That might explain why I have three of them — showcasing the work of local photographers Val Teshima, Amanda Nelson, and the winners of the Loon Lake photo contest — hanging up in the Journal office.
I also have two hanging up in my home, one of them in my bathroom. I’ve had a calendar in that room for as long as I can remember, hanging beside the mirror, and in case you think that’s an odd place to have a calendar, I would very much beg to differ. Apart from having one hanging over the desk — which I do — beside the bathroom mirror is just about the most practical place to put a calendar, since in the normal course of things I’m standing there for several minutes each day. Not only does the calendar give me something interesting to look at, it serves the practical purpose of letting me see at a glance where I am in the month so that I can get some idea of what’s coming up and when.
For many years now my calendar of choice for the bathroom has been the “Haunted Realm” calendar featuring the work of Sir Simon Marsden, 4th Baronet of Grimsby, who specialized in atmospheric photographs of allegedly haunted houses, graveyards, and locations in Britain, Ireland, and Europe. He was also fascinated by ruined castles and homes, with which those countries abound, and used an infrared technique which gave his black-and-white photographs an otherworldly ambience that accentuated his subjects’ already spectral appearance.
But Marsden was not just interested in what these places looked like. He delved into their histories and legends, and carefully researched the places he photographed. In 1980 a collection of his photographs, with accompanying writeups, appeared as In Ruins, and was followed by 10 other collections over the next 27 years. The best-known is probably 1986’s The Haunted Realm, and it was under that title that an annual calendar began to be published nearly 20 years ago, featuring a different Marsden photograph each month.
I fell into the habit of purchasing two copies of the calendar each year starting in at least 2009, if not earlier: one for me, and one for my parents, a tradition which continues to this day. Ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated by spooky locales, and Marsden photographed many places that I first read about decades ago, such as Borley Rectory — said to be the most haunted house in England — Glamis Castle, Whitby Abbey, Athelhampton Hall, and haunted Dartmoor, where the Hound of the Baskervilles hunted.
Another of his subjects was Plas Teg, said to be the most haunted house in Wales, which was only a few miles from where I lived for five years, and the location of one of only two events in my life that could (possibly) be described as supernatural. Even without its sinister reputation and reported ghosts it was an eerie spot, and Marsden’s photos more than captured that aspect of the house.
Alas, he died in 2012, so is no longer in a position to be taking more photographs (that we know of). Still, his work lives on in his annual calendars, which continue to be published, and which still adorn my bathroom wall, as something that is decidedly both use and ornament. If you don’t have a calendar in your own bathroom, I encourage you to get one. How spooky it is, of course, is entirely up to you.
