Dennis Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1960 and moved to England with his family when he was four years old. Growing up in Hackney, East London, he became interested in photography when he was nine. A crucial strand in his practice focussed on the everyday life of the Caribbean-British community in Hackney during the late 1960s and 1970s, providing an important and rare record of the migrant experience in London in a pivotal time of social and cultural change. Music was a prominent feature of Morris’ work and he took iconic photographs of Bob Marley & the Wailers on their tour in 1973, subsequently photographing leading musicians, including The Sex Pistols, Oasis, Prodigy, Supergrass and Radiohead.
Photographer Dennis Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1960 and moved to England with his family aged four. Growing up in Hackney, east London, he became interested in photography when he was nine through a photographic club that had been created for members of St Mark's Church choir in Dalston. Some of his early photographs were of choirboys dressed in their formal 'Eton' suits, a style of clothing worn by pupils at Eton College in Windsor. When Morris told his school careers adviser that he wanted to be a photographer, he was abruptly informed that ‘Black people can't earn a living from jobs like that’ (Arnot 2003). He was only 11 when one of his photographs of a PLO demonstration was printed on the front page of the Daily Mirror.
A crucial strand in his early practice focussed on the everyday life of the Caribbean-British community in Hackney during the late 1960s and 1970s, providing an important and rare record of the migrant experience in London at a pivotal time of social and cultural change. His images recorded the experience of growing up Black in an age of confrontation, defined by racism and segregation on one side, and a growing Black consciousness on the other. Morris later recalled that ‘suddenly we weren't coloured people any more – we were black. It was a question of pride and of self-definition. I see it now as a pioneering time, a time of great struggle and change’ (O’Hagan 2012). His powerful Brother Can You Spare Some Change? Sandringham Road, Dalston, Hackney (1976, Tate) was taken when Morris was still a teenager. It shows a young boy walking through a bleak urban scene, one hand outstretched towards the photographer begging for some change. In the background, buildings are in a state of disintegration, a metaphor for the tumultuous times faced by the newly forming black diaspora communities in London. As noted by art historian Kobena Mercer, Morris’s neighbourhood pictures provided a valuable insight into the narrative of the transition between first and second-generation immigrants into Britain, documenting the poverty, but also the rise of a sense of belonging, despite the harsh reality of discrimination (Mercer pp. 14-15). Morris also chronicled mounting black political activism in Britain during the 1970s, including demonstrations in London following the death of the African American prisoner and activist, George Jackson, which Morris described as a key contributor to the ‘feeling of black consciousness’ at the time (V&A). As pointed out by Gary Younge in The Guardian, in Morris’ photographs of Britain’s ‘racial history he transforms black Britons from objects to subjects, and from recipients of hospitality to cultural agents. We see not just a group of people shaped by their presence in Britain but shaping it’ (Younge 2012, p. 6).
Music was a prominent feature of Morris’ work. He had early success taking photographs of Bob Marley & the Wailers on their tour in 1973, while in his last year at school. He later recalled that when he first met Marley at the Speakeasy club: ‘He was asking me what it was like for young black kids in this country. Then he asked if I wanted to go on tour with the band. […] 'Marley was so positive and solid. He came with a message and a purpose, and he gave me black pride for the first time’ (Arnot 2003). In another series of photographs, Morris documented London's sound system music scene in the 1970s, which was born out of the sound system subculture first developed in Jamaica. Morris went on to photograph leading musicians including The Sex Pistols, Oasis, Prodigy, Supergrass and Radiohead, among many others. For the Jamaican label Island Records, he photographed the roots reggae band Steel Pulse for their major label debut single Klu Klux Klan in 1977, the song’s title, as well as the white hoods worn by the band, drawing attention to the American white supremacist organisation. Morris explained that through the photographs and their single, 'Steel Pulse wanted to show how the Klan were in our midst, in the community, disguised in different ways but present nevertheless'. However, the photographs were never used because the visual symbolism was considered to be too contentious. Morris’ first solo exhibition, featuring photographs of young black lives in London, Manchester and Birmingham in the 1970s, was held at the Tom Blau Gallery, London in 2000. Morris has since then exhibited frequently both in the UK and internationally, including in the survey show Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now, Tate Britain (2021). His photographs have appeared in Rolling Stone, Time, People Magazine, and the Sunday Times, among other publications. His monograph Growing Up Black was published in 2012. Morris’ work is represented in UK collections including Hackney Museum, Tate, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Dennis Morris]
Publications related to [Dennis Morris] in the Ben Uri Library