Ten Things you Didn't Know About Harry Barker Raymond

When and where were you born?

I was born on January 9, 1979. Like a typical Sagittarian, I have a strong sense of adventure and I don’t mind taking the occasional risk to keep life exciting. Pearl would probably say I take too many. (laughing) I was born in Forres, Scotland. My family—my mother, father and older brother Chris—moved to Manchester when I was nine years old and I have lived in the city ever since.

When did you develop a passion for the paranormal?

When I was a young lad, my uncle Fred used to visit us every weekend and he would tell stories of the ghosts he'd seen. He used to see them all over the place, down the coal mine where he worked, in the local pubs, even in the post office on the corner. He saw them so often I thought there was something wrong with me because I couldn't (laughing).As I grew older I started reading other people's accounts of otherworldly experiences and decided to do some amateur investigations. This tied in nicely with my hobby as a photographer at the time and it was fun.

Have you ever captured a ghost on film?

Pearl and I were in Wales a couple about a year ago investigating a reported haunting in a building that had once been a monastery and then a boy's home. I did get some very unusual photographs in one of the rooms, but the images were not at all what I thought they might be.

When did you decide to become a professional photographer?

At the age of 14 during a business trip to China with my parents.

How did you meet J.J. Benson?

I met Benny in a pub in Salford. I had missed my train and he was just about to take a tour of Ordsall Hall which is rumored to be very haunted. He asked me to go with him to shoot pictures and I did. I didn’t know at the time that he was a good friend of Pearl's.

What's it like Working with Pearl?

I love it. Pearl and I have been friends for years; we were at university together. She's much more skeptical than I am when it comes down to the paranormal stuff, but I think in her heart she really would like to experience something that would convince her that there's something going on that she can't totally rationalize.

What's your worst bad habit?

I don’t wash my dishes until I run out of clean ones (laughing).

What's the worst thing that could ever happen to you?

It already has. I lost my wife in a fire four years ago.

What's your most prized possession?

My Morris Minor Woody.

What is your biggest accomplishment to date?

I won the Golden Shutter photography award in 2012 for a series of photographs called Loving Life that I exhibited that year. The twelve photos were all of my wife Marie doing things that made her most happy.