Bob Marley, to most people, was the Third World ambassador who brought reggae music and Rastafarianism to an international audience. To Kate Simon, he was a friend and muse until his tragic death in 1981.
“He was very driven by his faith,” says Simon, who photographed the reggae icon from 1975 until his death. “That was really central to his message — to have brotherhood and to get up and stand up for your rights but not at the expense of anyone else.”
Among those in attendance at the exhibit’s opening Friday was Junior Marvin, lead guitarist for Marley’s band The Wailers.
“It seems like yesterday because most of these pictures came from the ‘Exodus’ tour,” Marvin says. Then a teenager, Marvin first toured with Bob Marley and The Wailers in 1977. “I still can’t believe that I actually worked with him. I’m still dreaming.”
The exhibit’s photos date back to the first shots Simon took of Marley, shot at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in London in 1975 as an assignment from British newspaper Sounds.
“I had never seen anything so brilliant,” says Simon, who had already worked with Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones before her first Bob Marley concert. “I was mesmerized and it sort of shifted my gear into a real appreciation for reggae.”
From that night on, Simon frequently traveled from her London home to Jamaica on assignments from magazines and record labels. She shot all of the big reggae stars in the 1970s. In 1977, she went on tour with Bob Marley and The Wailers to photograph the European leg of the “Exodus” tour. One of her photos was even chosen for the album cover of Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Kaya.
“I was staying at the Sheraton Kingston [Jamaica] and I was racing Chris Blackwell [owner of Island Records] in the breaststroke,” says Simon, a junior Olympic swimmer who lost the race to Blackwell. “I got out of the pool after losing, and still having the will to live, I saw Bob Marley sitting under one of those tin umbrellas by the pool. I got out and took a couple rolls of black and white and a roll of color.” The photo chosen for Kaya was a black-and-white photo of Marley smiling, looking over Simon’s shoulder.
Simon’s colossal rock ‘n’ roll portfolio also includes the Sex Pistols, The Clash and David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.
She always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Simon saw the Sex Pistols form when Malcolm McLaren, owner of a store called SEX where she hung around, began putting the band together with guitarist Steve Jones. She also photographed The Clash’s first album cover in London during a photo session for a friend, the band’s guitarist Joe Strummer.
After touring with her photo exhibit, Simon plans to create another book of photographs.
“I think this time it’s not going to be music. It’s going to be authors, painters, performers and musicians, perhaps,” Simon says. “It will be more recent work, not archival work.”
She’s already shot some of the world’s greatest musicians. Why retrace her own steps?
