Portraits show 'the real Bob Marley' in exhibition

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

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.

Morris has previously told how he bunked off school 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".

Marley played one of his earliest UK shows at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill in 1972.

The photographer said he hopes the images will allow viewers to feel the "love, joy, hope, defiance and strength radiating from the great man".

Remembering their first meeting, Morris said: "I was really into his music. Where it was going to lead, I didn't really know.

"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."

Morris described his relationship with the musician as the "making" of him.

"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."

He said: "Anyone that was privileged enough to be close to him, to meet him, it would rub off. He really was something special."

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.

"Marley's charisma and presence shines through in all of them," a gallery spokesperson said.

The exhibition, titled Dennis Morris: Bob Marley Music + Life, has previously been shown at the Photographers' Gallery in London and runs until 18 July in Sussex.

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.

He later photographed the Sex Pistols and went on to work with artists including Patti Smith, Oasis, Goldie and Radiohead.

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