
When it comes to universally-beloved musicians, Bob Marley is right in the very highest of brackets. All around the world, you’ll hear the late artist’s music; see his face, his album artwork; take inspiration from his quotes; and find entire exhibitions and films dedicated to him.
This month in London, one such exhibition is opening up, and it features photos of the man by pioneering photographer of the reggae explosion Esther Anderson. Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years, opens at Muswell Hill Gallery on May 30 and runs until June 19, offering visitors a unique look into the life of Bob Marley at the beginning of his historic musical journey.
Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years
At the exhibition, you’ll find 20 rare photos of Bob Marley by Esther Anderson, the iconic photographer, filmmaker and activist. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more placed to document the early years of Bob Marley in exhibition form – Anderson first heard him sing at Compass Studios in Nassau, Bahamas in 1972, and described the experience as unlike anything she had ever heard.
As the co-founder of Island Records, this begun a six-year collaboration between her and Marley, and she said she immediately knew that the two artists were kindred spirits.
Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years is only the second retrospective exhibition of Esther Anderson’s photographs of Bob Marley to ever hit London, and also follows her 2011 documentary Bob Marley: The Making Of A Legend. The works are taken in 1973, six years before Marley became a global and are described as “intimate and unassuming”, with a true air of “vulnerability and ordinariness”.
Her photos a true showcase of her vision ahead of Bob Marley And The Wailers become adored across the planet for decades to come, and is part of her wider work in the 19602 and 1970s to document Jamaican culture through music, dance and photography.
Speaking on her photographs, Esther Anderson said: “My work is not pandering to those who know Bob Marley as a music icon. My photographs reveal Marley beyond the bounds of a musician, as the messenger who could reach out to a global audience, a poet of past and future.”
“I wanted to photograph him in the light of Jamaica, showing the colour of our skin the way it should be shown.”
Find “Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years Exhibition” at Muswell Hill Gallery at 21 High Street, Hornsey, N8 7QB from May 30 to June 19, open Monday – Friday (closed Wednesdays) from 10am – 4pm, Saturdays 11am – 5pm, and Sundays (11am – 4pm). Find out more via the Muswell Hill Gallery Instagram page.