Research 1 - An Evening with Dennis Morris

On 13th October, I and other members of the photography group had the opportunity to go and meet and hear Dennis Morris, a photographer famed for pictures of Bob Marley and the Whalers, Sex Pistols, Jonny Rotten to name a few http://www.dennismorris.com/.  I found him to be an interesting man to listen to, his stories were fascinating.   He got into photography when he used to attend a choir when he was 9 years old.   At this choir he was given the opportunity to see how a 35mm film was developed.   Dennis said "when he saw the image appear on the paper after going into the developing tray he thought wow".   Mr Patterson who is the man responsible for Paterson photographic equipment took Dennis under his wing.   Dennis lived in the East End of London and bunked off school one day to wait for Bob Marley at the Speak Easy Club in London.  Bob asked him if he wanted to go on tour with him and Dennis subsequently went home, packed a bag and disappeared for a week!   His first camera was a Pentax and his current cameras are many.  He said he is able to borrow or loan cameras and equipment nowadays.    I have to say I wasn't greatly inspired by the few of Dennis's photographs that he showed but that's because I'm not a fan of concert pictures however I have looked at his website and like some of his other collections like "A Happy breed" and "An Aboriginal Dream", Growing up in Southall and Growing up Black some of which images i have shown below.  They are predominantly black and white, they are of days gone by which I find very interesting to see how people lived, they are of family and in my opinion show love and closeness and also different cultures.    I am inspired by the work below showing ordinary family life - I feel sometimes I have an unrealistic expectation that all photographs should be a certain way i.e. out of this world, but I am realising that photographs such as the one below of the family of 3 is a record of how a family lived and that's not always going to be like an image from Ideal Homes magazine.  

Me and Dennis Morris

From Dennis Morris Collection "Growing up Black"



From Dennis Morris collection "Southall - Home from Home Grocer"



Growing up Black