Fifty years after his breakthrough album, “Catch a Fire”, Bob Marley is the latest megastar to receive the Hollywood biopic treatment, with a new film coming to cinemas in January. An enduring symbol of youthful idealism, a style icon and a songwriter whose music still resonates decades after his death, Marley’s flame continues to burn. For Esquire, photographer Kate Simon looks back on her years capturing the reggae legend and his associates, on stage and off
By Miranda Collinge
JUDY MOWATT, BOB MARLEY AND UNKNOWN GUEST, LONDON, 1975 “I was on staff for a weekly called Sounds, and I went with a friend to the Lyceum Theatre in London to see Bob Marley and The Wailers. And they were just so, so brilliant. This is from the after-party, where I first met Bob. In this picture there’s this woman sort of clinging on to Bob, and there’s Judy Mowatt [of the Wailers’ backing trio, The I Threes]. It was just an incredible concert. Unforgettable.” EXODUS EUROPEAN TOUR, 1977 “I love this picture. It was extraordinary to be able to see Bob Marley and The Wailers every day over a few weeks in concert and in their soundcheck. All the people that played with them were incredible musicians; this cannot be stressed enough. The lighting was really low, and I wanted to use available light, so I had to do a long exposure. I can tell you this much: I was trying to get this shot for so long, and I finally got it.” BELGIUM, 1977 “I think I took this one in a hotel room in Brussels. Bob’s wearing an Exodus sweatshirt, and he’s playing an Ovation guitar. I like that inherent to the shot is red, green and gold. Yeah, it’s great – she said modestly. We had a great rapport; when you photograph somebody a lot over several years it’s a unique relationship.” PETER TOSH, JAMAICA, 1976 “I took this picture in Kingston in this music promotor called Tommy Cowan’s yard, where all the musicians seemed to meet up. I just saw Peter sitting there. He was really self-possessed and had a bombastic personality. Really tall. Beautiful speaking voice. It looks like he’s rolling a spliff but it’s the imaginary spliff shot, because there’s no spliff.” BUNNY WAILER, JAMAICA, 1976 “I was in Jamaica to shoot images of Bunny because Island Records had just released his album, Blackheart Man. There were a few journalists waiting for him to come out of the mountains. He came down, and it was one of my favourite shoots. He wasn’t being that friendly; he was giving me what he was giving me. He was pretty self-possessed, too.”
“LOOK AT THAT FACE,” says New York photographer Kate Simon, still apparently in disbelief, as she examines a black-and-white portrait of Bob Marley, smiling at something just up and out of shot. It’s the one that she took by the side of the pool at the Sheraton hotel in Jamaica in 1976, that ended up on the cover of Bob Marley and The Wailer
