Simon was educated in England finishing at Oxford and Bristol Universities with a degree in Philosophy and Sociology. After leaving the Documentary Photography course in Newport, S. Wales, he worked for far-left publications specializing in work on anti-racist activities and fascist groups, in particular the British National Party. In 1994 he gave up photojournalism in favor of landscape photography.

His book For Most Of It I Have No Words about the landscapes of the places that have witnessed Genocide was published in 1998 to wide approval. The piece was exhibited at venues including the Imperial War Museum in London; the Nederlands Foto Institut; the Holocaust Museum in Houston and the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan.

His work from Afghanistan was exhibited worldwide including in Boston, Cologne, Sarajevo, Frankfurt, Portland, Naarden, Thessaloniki, Rome, Cork, Madrid, Düsseldorf and Weymouth.

He is currently Artist-in-Residence with the Irish Army, on UN peacekeeping duties in Liberia and Kosovo. His third book, about the mass graves of eastern Bosnia, titled Bleed was published in May 2005.