joIn the fall of 1972, he had just finished filming A Warm December with Sidney Poitier. I was in New York at a party hosted by Island Records, and that’s where I met Bob. He and the Wailers had recently signed with the label and he was in town to do some promotional work.
I was at a stage in my life when I was tired of repeating the ideas and voices of others as an actress. I wanted to find another way to express myself. I had been learning the craft of photography through my friend Francine Winham, and I decided to put aside my acting career to document Bob Marley and the Wailers for her upcoming album Catch a Fire. My then partner, Chris Blackwell, co-founder of Island, asked me to guide the group and help them transform them into international artists.
I traveled with Bob to Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti shortly after. We began to develop a very close relationship that involved writing together, including the lyrics of Get Up, Stand Up. He seriously wanted an artist and was desperate to get his voice out into the world.
When we got back to Jamaica, I suggested we go to Hellshire Beach for filming. It is a part of the island famous for its beautiful white sand, clear water and Blue Mountain in the background. He wanted to show Bob as himself, a young artist coming out of Jamaica, on his own terms. It was crucial to show how important Rastafarian philosophy and his way of life were to him. He knew that Bob’s Covenant, as he called his “Rasta tam” (his red, gold, and green cap), was the connection. I tried to prove that without the Rastafarian tradition there was no Bob Marley.
At that time, the Rastafarians were not considered part of Jamaican culture, and the people of the island were deprived of their rights and ostracized to be Rastafarians. Having dreadlocks often prevented access to white-collar jobs. He wanted Bob Marley and the Wailers to be a catalyst for a change in the perception of Rastafarians both in Jamaica and around the world, and to associate tradition with the beauty of reggae.
On the day of filming, Bob had a disagreement with Chris and was in a bad mood. To loosen it up, I made him run to the beach. It got very hot, so he took off his shirt. As he ran, feeling free, he was taking pictures.
I wanted to photograph it in the light of Jamaica, showing the color of our skin as it should be shown. I remember him saying, “God, you’re taking so many pictures of me!” The camera loved him and he loved to shine: he photographed like a dream. By the time it stopped running, the evening sun had fallen and reflected like burnt gold on the surface of the water. I took a close-up, and that’s when he grabbed my hands.
To me, the picture is like a prayer, as if Bob were saying, “I’m looking at Babylon and I’m trusting you.” The inn was completely natural, but I knew as soon as it did that the turning point was here.
I used a Nikon with a 200mm lens. I love the grainy quality of a photo; I don’t particularly like the pictures being completely flat. The image represents the very essence of being comfortable with one’s own skin and how one’s own expression is born of being true to oneself.
Born: Jamaica, 1943.
Trained: with photographer Francine Winham.
Influences: Hiro, Richard Avedon, Jerry Schatzberg, Robert Freeman, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Man Ray.
High point: “The success of my album photos for Catch a Fire and Burnin ‘. Burnin ‘was chosen by Time magazine and the BBC to be placed in a capsule at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which will open on the night of the year 3000. “
Low point: In 1974, after the release of the album Catch a Fire, Jamaican police raided my home and the studio took away my film and photographs, including the cover image of Bob smoking a great spliff. They never returned me.
Top Tips: “Protect your copyright. Work in the discipline of photography only if you are passionate and enjoy it.”
