Through the Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years Exhibition

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Muswell Hill Gallery announces a new exhibition, “Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years”. The show brings together 20 rare and iconic photographs of Bob Marley taken by the pioneering Jamaican filmmaker, photographer, and activist Esther Anderson at the start of Bob Marley's journey into the music stratosphere in the early 1970s. Her contribution as a photographer places her amongst some of the greats with this rare and intimate archive that tells the story of the legendary artist. 

As co-founder of Island Records, Esther Anderson first heard Bob Marley sing at Compass Studios in the Bahamas in 1972. So began a six-year musical and artistic collaboration during which Esther directed as the Wailers worked on their seminal first albums for Island Records. Esther organised all the early activities of Bob Marley & The Wailers and was a driving force behind everything they did at that time. She documented them in the studio, on the road, and in their everyday lives, and “Through The Lens of Esther Anderson: Bob Marley: The Early Years” is a rare chance to view and own intimate photographs from this bespoke curated collection. 

Only the second retrospective of Anderson's photographs of Marley in London, many of these black and white photographs are intimate and unassuming, taken in 1973, six years before Marley became reggae music's first superstar. Both powerful and unique, this collection of photographs and the subsequent documentary film “Bob Marley: The Making Of A Legend” are a testament to Esther's early vision ahead of Bob Marley & The Wailers' road to global superstardom as reggae's most explosive pioneers.