{"id":864764,"date":"2026-06-13T15:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T15:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/864764\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T15:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T15:19:16","slug":"portraits-show-the-real-bob-marley-in-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/864764\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits show ‘the real Bob Marley’ in exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

An exhibition celebrating Bob Marley has opened at a gallery in Sussex, charting his life from his early career to becoming a global megastar.<\/p>\n

Photographer Dennis Morris documented Marley’s career after the pair first met in 1973. Some of his work is on display at the Lucy Bell Gallery in St Leonards.<\/p>\n

Morris has previously told how he bunked off school<\/a> as a teenage fan, aged 14, to meet the singer at the Speakeasy Club in London before becoming his photographer. He told BBC South East that moment was when “the adventure began”.<\/p>\n

Marley played one of his earliest UK shows<\/a> at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill in 1972.<\/p>\n

The photographer said he hopes the images will allow viewers to feel the “love, joy, hope, defiance and strength radiating from the great man”.<\/p>\n

Remembering their first meeting, Morris said: “I was really into his music. Where it was going to lead, I didn’t really know.<\/p>\n

“I just knew that something told me I had to be there. Something told him I had to be there with him. It was like a big adventure.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The exhibition traces Marley’s career from the early years to becoming a reggae icon<\/p>\n

Morris described his relationship with the musician as the “making” of him.<\/p>\n

“For me, he was one of the first black men I’d met with such confidence, absolute confidence, and he had a magic and aura about him which was unbelievable.”<\/p>\n

He said: “Anyone that was privileged enough to be close to him, to meet him, it would rub off. He really was something special.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Curators said the intimate portraits showed the “real” Marley<\/p>\n

Curators at the gallery said the intimate portraits showed the “real” Bob Marley, including moments in his Jamaican garden, on tour buses and in hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

“Marley’s charisma and presence shines through in all of them,” a gallery spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, titled Dennis Morris: Bob Marley Music + Life<\/a>, has previously been shown at the Photographers’ Gallery in London and runs until 18 July in Sussex.<\/p>\n

Morris, who was born in Jamaica in 1960 and moved to London as a child, discovered his interest in photography at the age of nine.<\/p>\n

He later photographed the Sex Pistols and went on to work with artists including Patti Smith, Oasis, Goldie and Radiohead.<\/p>\n

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a> and listen to BBC Radio Sussex on Sounds<\/a>. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk<\/a> or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.<\/p>\n

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