The exhibition will run from the 30th May until the 19th June.
The Muswell Hill Gallery has unveiled details of its new exhibition Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years, which will bring together 20 rare images of the singer, taken by the pioneering Jamaican filmmaker, photographer and activist, Esther Anderson at the start of Bob Marley’s journey into the music stratosphere in the early 1970’s.
Esther Anderson first heard Bob Marley sing at Compass Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, in 1972 and soon sought to shine a light on Bob Marley and the rise of reggae music. This then led to a six year musical and artistic collaboration which Esther directed as the Wailers worked on their seminal first albums for Island Records.
This is only the second retrospective of Anderson’s photographs of Marley in London, many of the black-and-white photographs are intimate, taken in 1973, six years before Marley became reggae music’s first superstar.
Anderson’s musical documentary “Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend” was chosen to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Marley’s passing in 2011 at film festivals around the world, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival; DocMiami International Film Festival; Festival de Cine Documental de la Cuidad de Mexico and Jamaica’s Reggae Film Festival. Its London premiere was held at the British Film Institute on December 17, 2011 and Esther went on to win a Unesco Honor Award for the film. Amazon Prime have recently signed the film to be screened across their platform.
Talking about her images of Bob Marley, Esther Anderson said: “The power of an image to inform, to effect change, to distort is endless. It is that power that this image projects out into the world, onto the viewer. Most of these pictures are unseen works that make up the collection which was used to launch the first two Albums on Island Records, “Catch A Fire” and “Burnin”. That photograph of Bob smoking was the first time anyone had been portrayed in that way, as he said he was “partaking of the sacred sacrament for his meditation.
“The image became for Island Records a powerful marketing tool, but for the people an emblem of amnesty and freedom… Long live the power of the image… that’s what the photographs have for me.”