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Dennis Morris is a British photographer, best known for his images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols. [1] [2]
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Dennis Morris is a British photographer, best known for his images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols. [1] [2]
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In 1974 Morris, then at school in London, heard that Bob Marley was playing at the Speakeasy Club in Great Marlborough Street, London. He went to the club during the day, met Marley and asked to take his picture. Marley agreed, and after hearing that Morris wanted to be a photographer told him “You are a photographer”. The following day Morris left with the band in their Transit van. He went on to photograph the musician until Marley's death in 1981. [3]
After being approached by John Lydon personally, after their signing to Virgin Records, In May 1977 Morris spent a year with the Sex Pistols, documenting them in depth. [4] [5] [6] In 1978 Morris went with Virgin boss Richard Branson on a talent-spotting trip to Jamaica. Morris persuaded Virgin that John Lydon should accompany them. [7]
Morris describes his style as "reportage", citing as influences Robert Capa and Don McCullin. He used a Leica camera, finding that its small size meant that "you can take it anywhere, and no one takes it seriously. So you get them to open up." [5]
In 1979 Morris created the logo for the band Public Image Limited and the innovative Metal Box album packaging. [8] He then became art director of Island Records [9] and designed album covers for Linton Kwesi Johnson, Marianne Faithfull (Broken English) and Bob Marley.
In mid-1979 Morris replaced Don Letts as vocalist of Basement 5, a reggae punk fusion band. He created their logo, image, photography and graphics and gained a recording contract with Island Records. Their albums, 1965–1980 and Basement in Dub, were produced by Martin Hannett in 1980 [10] and re-released by the PIAS label in 2017. [11]
In 2000 Morris travelled to the Philippines to photograph the crucifixion of artist Sebastian Horsley. [12] In 2002, to mark the 40th anniversary of Jamaican independence, Morris was commissioned by BBC 2 to document reggae superstars, Jamaican street culture and the energy of the dancehall for the award-winning TV series and accompanying book Reggae: The Story of Jamaican Music. [13] [14]
In June 2005 the Spectrum London gallery had a show of photographs by Morris documenting the daily lives, ceremonies and rituals of the Mowanjum Community of Indigenous Australians. [15] The gallery was blessed by tribe leader Francis Firebrace, wearing body paint and tribal dress. [15]
Morris was commissioned to show a new body of work at the Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2008 to coincide with the Olympic Cultural programme. [16]
A large installation of his punk images (part of the I am a cliché, Echoes of the Punk Aesthetic exhibition curated by Emma Lavigne) was shown at the 41st Rencontres d'Arles (France) during the summer of 2010. [17]
In 2013 Morris collaborated with Shepard Fairey on a body of work titled S.I.D (Superman Is Dead), culminating in an exhibition at Subliminal Projects (LA- USA). [18] [19]
In April 2014 he exhibited a large collection of his Bob Marley photographs at the Known Gallery in Los Angeles. [20] [21]
In early 2016 BBC 4 made a documentary on his work as part of their ongoing series What do artists do all day? [22]
In 2016 the Institute of Contemporary Arts presented an exhibition of his design, marketing, art direction and photography of Public Image Ltd. [23]
In 2018, nowness made a short film of Dennis Morris in Tokyo for their "Photographers in Focus" series [24]
In 2023, he exhibited a series of work titled "Colored Black" at Kyotographie International Photography Festival in Japan. [25]
Some of his photos from his Growing Up Black collection are part of the Tate Britain collection and were displayed in an exhibition titled Stan Firm inna Inglan from November 2016 to November 2017. [26] [27]
His photographs have appeared in publications including Rolling Stone, Time, People, V, GQ, I-D, Vogue, "Frieze magazine" [28] and the Sunday Times.[ citation needed ]
He has held exhibitions worldwide (Sydney Opera House,[ citation needed ] Laforet Museum, Tokyo, [29] Contact Toronto and in galleries in London, New York, Paris,[ citation needed ] San Francisco,[ citation needed ] and Stuttgart).[ citation needed ]
His photographs have become highly collectable,[ citation needed ]; one body of work, Southall – a home from home, was bought with help from the Heritage Lottery Fund, [30] and is held in the archives of Gunnersbury Park Museum in London. [31] "Growing Up Black", a collection of his photographs of the black community in Hackney is part of the permanent collection of the Hackney Museum. [32] The Victoria and Albert Museum has also acquired some photographs from this series. [33]
Morris' work has been used in books such as Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century by Greil Marcus Century by Bruce Bernard, Punk by Steven Colgrave and Chris Sullivan, and Rolling Stone: The Complete Covers 1967–1997. He has been the subject of documentaries and television programmes in the UK and US.[ citation needed ]
Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes of England, and more broadly the wealth of the Western world.
Robert Capa was a Hungarian–American war photographer and photojournalist. He is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David "Chim" Seymour, Maria Eisner, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, William Vandivert, and Rita Vandivert. Its photographers retain all copyrights to their own work.
Elliott Erwitt was a French-born American advertising and documentary photographer known for his black and white candid photos of ironic and absurd situations within everyday settings. He was a member of Magnum Photos from 1953.
Sir Donald McCullin is a British photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.
Jill Furmanovsky is a British photographer who has specialised in documenting rock musicians.
Robert Carlos Clarke was a British-Irish photographer who made erotic images of women as well as documentary, portrait, and commercial photography.
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Janette Beckman is a British documentary photographer who currently lives in New York City. Beckman describes herself as a documentary photographer. While she produces a lot of work on location, she is also a studio portrait photographer. Her work has appeared on records for the major labels, and in magazines including Esquire,Rolling Stone,Glamour,Italian Vogue,The Times,Newsweek,Jalouse,Mojo and others.
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Vanessa Winship HonFRPS is a British photographer who works on long term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. These personal projects have predominantly been in Eastern Europe but also the USA. Winship's books include Schwarzes Meer (2007), Sweet Nothings (2008) and She Dances on Jackson (2013).
Armet Francis is a Jamaican-born photographer and publisher who has lived in London since the 1950s. He has been documenting and chronicling the lives of people of the African diaspora for more than 40 years and his assignments have included work for The Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Supplement, BBC and Channel 4.
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Neil Emile Elias Kenlock is a Jamaican-born photographer and media professional who has lived in London since the 1960s. During the 1960s and 1970s, Kenlock was the official photographer of the British Black Panthers, and he has been described as being "at the forefront of documenting the black experience in the UK". Kenlock was co-founder of Choice FM, the first successful radio station granted a licence to cater for the black community in Britain.
Janine Wiedel is a documentary photographer and visual anthropologist. She was born in New York City, has been based in the UK since 1970, and lives in London. Since the late 1960s she has been working on projects which have become books and exhibitions. In the early 1970s she spent five years working on a project about Irish Travellers; in the late 1970s two years documenting the industrial heartland of Britain. Wiedel's work is socially minded, exploring themes such as resistance, protest, multiculturalism and counterculture movements.
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