Interview with Jill Furmanovsky

ivan

– 02/07/2001Posted in: Magazine Interviews

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In 1977 Marley moved to London after he was shot in Kingston, Jamaica. There he recorded “Exodus”. It was possibly his best album to date, it strengthen the bands international stardom. It went number one in many countries. During their European tour the band did a week of shows at the Rainbow Theater in London. It was in the beginning of the tour that Bob injured his toe playing football. It was later diagnosed as cancer. It was also under this tour that Bob received from Prince Asfa Wossan a very important ring, who’s previous owner was the Ethiopian Emperor H.I.M. Haile Selassie. In London he also spent much of the year living with the reigning Miss World, Cindy Breakspeare. When a reporter once asked him about monogamy he replied that there are many queens in his life, and he thinks he is intitled to that. Jill Furmanovsky is one of the photographers who met Bob Marley: she met Bob in Gloucester Road, in London, february 1978. Consulted on the matter by our Magazine, Jill has so recalled: “I was there to accompany the journalist from ‘Sounds’ – I think it was Pete Silverton. Bob was very gracious and kind to me. To be in room with him was a great thing as he had a strong spiritual presence. I have a series of images of him sitting on the bed with his head held high. This was because I was trying to use the available light from above. I expained what I was doing and he was happy to help me achieve the picture. In two of the frames after the one you have seen, he put his head right back so that his hat fell off and his locks fell out! Those are good images too. I deleted his spliff from my picture (but you can see it in his expression) because I was afraid he might be arrested!

BMM: “Have you ever had any further contact with Bob?”
JF: “I photographed him live in Stoke. Sadly most of that session has disappeared, but a few of the images are still in my possession. These will eventually be seen on rockarchive.com”

BMM: “We hope to see them. Thank you very much

(We’d like to express our gratitude to photographer Jill Furmanovsky for allowing us to use his Bob Marley photo. Jill Furmanovsky has captured some of the most iconic and familiar images of music photography in existence. Since Starting out at London’s Rainbow Theatre in 1972, Jill’s work has followed the progress of bands and artists such as Pink Floyd, The Police, The Clash, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde, Bob Marley, Sinead O’Connor and many others. Jill has won many awards for her photography including Diamond Music Photographer of the Year 1987, Kodak European Gold Award 1994, first prize in the Observer Portrait Award 1992 and other accolades. Her contribution to rock music was recognised by the UK music industry in 1998/99 when she was named their ‘Woman of the Year’.)