"Two Loves", Bob Nesta Marley, Fox Theater, Atlanta 1979

In lieu of all the attention and adulation that the legend of reggae is receiving because of the new biopic, I wanted to share 4 of my photos of Bob Marley from one of my first shoots as a music photojournalist when I lived in Atlanta. I had met his keyboard player, Tyrone Downie, before he was his keyboard player, in Jamaica when I was all of sweet sixteen! My mother and 2 of her friends and one of the daughters of one of the friends, spent a week in a villa near a Hilton Hotel. Each night, young sweet Tyrone (seen in photo #4), played his organ at the hotel lounge and I was instantly drawn to him. I was not yet a bonafide photographer but was slowly developing a love of documentation with whatever tool I had. Several years later, he relocated to Toronto in the middle of the winter. Tyrone had the sweetest disposition, and there was never a moment, not a second when he wasni't grinning ear to ear. But when he suddenly found himself in the harshest weather during the coldest time of year, his first and only time off the island of Jamaica, he was overwhelmed and expressed to me in a letter, how that smile was nowhere to be conjured. But that he was summoned there by fellow reggae musicians to make a living, and shortly thereafter was hired by the one of the greatest musicians of all time, Mr. Marley, allowed for him to travel the world, see the world, experience the world and in 1979 land in Atlanta to play with Bob and the Wailers at the historic, magnificent Fox Theater. I still had no press credentials and it was because of my lucky alliance with Tyrone that I was able to meet and photograph Bob and the band, although at the time I was a bit naive. I was backstage after the concert and a flirtatious photographer convinced me to give him a roll of film as he had run out. And without thinking clearly, I gave him what turned out to be my last roll, thinking I had plenty of frames left in my camera. Years later, when printing in my makeshift bedroom darkroom, I scratched one of the negatives badly (image #1) and this was way before digital of course. I tried to fix it with some bottled solution that was supposed to repair scratches. But I made it worse and it created a partial fading on part of the negative. I had printed about (5) 8 x 10's and given away about (3) as presents before the damage. Finally many, many years later when scanners were an affordable household item, I was able to scan and retouch the photo and it became one of my most published and known photos of Marley. I had not paid much attention to the other images on my contact sheets and finally resurrected those when I had a scanner.

I will leave you with these 4 captures...