Bob Marley by Dennis Morris

Babylon by van, 1973

‘They asked me if I wanted to come on tour. “Yes!” I said. I met the band at their hotel, the following day after the Speakeasy gig. There was no tour bus as such, just a transit van and a driver cum roadie cum manager Benji Foot (Michael Foot’s son) and a woman named Hazel Charik. They were a little surprised to see me. “Who is this?” they asked. “It’s my photographer, Dennis,” said Bob. “You ready, Dennis?”. “Yeah, I am ready!” I replied’

Bob Marley 

by Dennis Morris

Photographer Dennis Morris worked extensively with Bob Marley between 1973 and 1980, charting his rise from small crowds to global superstardom. After greeting the reggae star at a London club in May 1973, Morris was invited to join the tour – the start of a strong friendship and unrivalled photographic access. We hear from Morris about his memories of photographing Marley

• An exhibition, Portraits of the King: Bob Marley by Dennis Morris,
  runs at 28 Old Burlington Street in London until 7 March
• Morris’s book Portraits of the King is published by Tang Deng

Photographs by Dennis Morris

Main image: Bob Marley in his tour van, London 1973. Photograph: Dennis Morris

Fri 16 Feb 2024 11.22 GMT

Hand on Heart, on tour, UK, 1973

‘I first met Bob in 1973 outside the Speakeasy club in London on the first date of the Wailers UK Catch a Fire tour to promote the Catch a Fire album, his first for Island Records. Bob invited me into the club.’ During a break, he says Marley asked him: ‘So, you wanna be a photographer? Well, they will tell you you can’t do it. You have to believe, Dennis’

Fist, 1973

Marley was a deep thinker. As Morris notes: ‘It was after each gig that Bob and I were able to have a one-to-one sitting. It was more than just taking photos. It was a teaching, a learning, a growing. It was like he was the missing link. He spoke of many things but everything was positive. It seemed like whatever Babylon had in store for him – for us, he had a plan, a way of being, a way of living free. The knowledge of our history leads to freedom of mind’

Backstage in Bournemouth, 1973

There’s always a lot waiting around any tour. Marley and Morris wasted no time, instead talking and taking portraits. Morris says: ‘I call them sittings because this was when we would sit and reason (a Rasta term for discussion). During this reasoning was when I took my shots’

THE GUARDIAN