Dennis Morris was born in Jamaica and grew up in London’s East End. He became a camera fanatic at the age of 8. His career began when he was only 11, when one of his photographs was printed on the front page of the Daily Mirror.
In 1973, while Dennis was still a teenager, he bunked off high school and went to the Speakeasy Club because he had heard that Bob Marley was playing there later that day. He waited for Marley to arrive, and when he did he asked if he could take his picture. Marley agreed and invited him in. The next day young Dennis joined Bob Marley and the Wailers for the last two weeks of their UK tour.
Before Dennis had even turned 17 he had received international acclaim for his photographs of Marley and The Wailers, as they appeared on the cover of Marley's Live at the Lyceum album in 1975, and in music magazines like Time Out and Melody Maker. He continued to photograph Marley until his death in 1981.
The images also caught the attention of a young Johnny Rotten, and in 1977 he was invited to tour with the Sex Pistols as their official photographer, again producing a series of legendary photographs. Dennis had unrestricted access to the band and was the only photographer to put the Sex Pistols fully at ease in front of the lens.
In 1979 Morris began working with graphic design and packaging and soon became art director of Island Records. He designed album covers for several artists including Public Image Limited, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Marianne Faithfull, and Bob Marley.
During this same period Morris joined a black punk band called Basement 5. He then started the drum & bass outfit Urban Shakedown, who were picked up by Paul Weller to be the first release on his Respond label. His late 80s hip-hop outfit, Boss, were later signed to Virgin Records and released 4 singles.
Morris continued to photograph the leading musicians of our time, including Bush, Oasis and The Prodigy. In addition to music, Dennis documented London's black and Asian cultures from the 1970s. His work gained him huge critical acclaim in the UK and he has exhibited his various portfolios all over the world.
His work is held in numerous public and private collections including Tate Britain, Gunnersbury Park Museum, The Hackney Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Nearly a dozen books of his work have been published, including Destroy: Sex Pistols 1977 (1998), Bob Marley: A Rebel Life: A Photobiography 1973–1980 (1999), Southall – a Home from Home (1999), Growing Up Black (2012), The Bollocks: a photo essay of the Sex Pistols (2014), Super Perry: The Iconic Images of Lee Scratch Perry (2022), and "Portraits of the King." photographs of Bob Marley (2023) to name a few.
His photographs have appeared on numerous album covers and in many magazines and newspapers including Rolling Stone, Time, People, and The Sunday Times. A professional photographer of high-regard, he has also been involved with projects for the BBC and Channel 4.
A selection of Dennis Morris’ photographs is shown below. Please contact us to inquire about images not shown below.