Fotoausstellung – Bob Marley: The King of Reggae

In the organizer's words:

Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley would have celebrated his eightieth birthday this year. Born on February 6, 1945 in Nine Miles, Saint Ann Parish, he is undisputedly considered the most important artist and "founder" of reggae music. All his albums and songs, such as "Get Up Stand Up", "No Woman, No Cry" and "Could You Beloved", are classics of the scene. He has become a source of inspiration for many people and artists. His music has sold more than 75 million records to date. This makes him one of the musicians with the most records sold worldwide. His death from cancer on May 11, 1981 at the age of just 36 left more than just Jamaica in mourning. In memory of him, we are showing a photo exhibition by the renowned photographer Adrian Boot.

Adrian Boot, born in 1947, is regarded as one of the best and most renowned photographers in Great Britain, particularly in the music scene. He came to professional photography by chance. In the early 1970s, he spent three years in Jamaica at the University of West Indies in Kingston and at Titchfield High School in Port Antonio as a lecturer in his specialist field of physics. Back then, still an amateur photographer, he had the opportunity to photograph the still unknown local reggae scene up close. A friendship developed with Bob Marley, of whom he took pictures back then that are now world-famous.

Chris Blackwell, friend, music producer and founder of Island Records, had the courage to invite the young Bob Marley and his band to London for his first recordings. This is how his ten legendary albums from "Catch A Fire" (1973) to "Uprising" (1980) were created. As Adrian had already been there, his photos were the first to be used for promotion and albums. This brought him to the attention of various music magazines and newspapers such as "Melody Maker", "The Times", "The Guardian" and "The Face", as well as many music stars such as the Sex Pistols and Sting, who appreciated his photographic eye. Further work has taken him to West Africa and India.

To mark the charismatic artist's 50th birthday, Adrian Boot published the book "Bob Marley - Songs of Freedom" in 1975. In it, the story of Marley's life is accompanied by more than four hundred photos, illustrations and graphics as well as facsimiles of his musical lyrics.