This is one of my favorite photos from Kingston for several reasons. For me black & white photography is all about light, shadow and texture. In this photograph you have the lines created by all the different zinc and wood panels combined with the harsh sunlight creating deep shadows and highlighting the textures. The photo also shows many elements of daily life in downtown Kingston, the car wheel hub for cooking, the slippers outside the door, the zinc, the water bucket and the wash basin.

12/25/95 – A very beautiful Christmas day ! I treated myself by sleeping in until almost one o’clock. I burned a few spliffs then walked into New Kingston. I met up with Tex and the crew and we hung out at Pedro’s for a while and drank a few beers. Tex had the Japanese posse with him today. I met the Japanese photographer Tatsu, apparently he knew who I was and admired my work. He seemed like a cool guy, we shared a lot of the same photographic views. It was good to talk to someone for a change who knew what I was trying to do and understood it. He was familiar with of my work and said some of it reminded him of Robert Frank, it was a great compliment indeed. He said we probably have the same style of shooting, for some reason I agreed even though I have not seen any of his photos. I wanted to talk more but had to head downtown, we said we would try to hook up at his hotel before he left. I called his hotel later and he had left already so will try to track him down while he is in NYC.

I hung out in New Kingston for several hours, was pretty quiet, not much traffic. Drank several Red Stripes and burned a few more spliffs then decided to head down to Trench Town. I tried two taxis but none wanted to drive me down to Trench Town (a common problem) finally Tony said he would drive me, he didn’t really know where I was going, Fuzzy said he would tag along as well. Once Tony saw where Fuzzy and I going he blurts out “I’m not going down to Rema!” and I said “No were going to Trench Town”. It turns out Fuzzy was OK (politically) there so all was cool, I didn’t want to bring him and have problems. I introduced him to some of the bredrin there and  was all good, he said now he can bring some Japanese down there for a tour. We hung out about three hours or so and I walked around taking photos, got some of the kids and their gifts. It turns out the dance for the night was postponed until Wednesday night, is just as well I thought, I’m tired and am not feeling like hanging out all night drinking. I hailed a cab to take me back to Halfway Tree, charged me $J150, a good price. As it urns out this Rasta cab driver grew up a few doors down from Rita Marley and he also knew quite a few of the Trench Town artists from way back. I got the drivers number (Jah Earl has been my driver from that day on) so I just   relaxed for a quiet, but hot Christmas evening.

This is where I shot the cover of the Chaka Demus and Pliers CD “Help Them Lord” that RAS records put out back in 2000. Below are some notes from that day on December 14th.

12/14/2000 – Got up about 8:30 and the sun is beating down hard again. Had some bush tea and cornmeal porridge for breakfast, which was awesome, Carlton can make some wicked food. I called the cab company and told them to have Jah Earl pick me up at 1:30. When he arrived we had to go pick up a regular passenger of his first so we ended up leaving Half Way Tree about 2:00. I was supposed to meet Chaka & Pliers at Jolly’s (restaurant) in Portmore around 2:30, but of course there is no sign either of them yet. Jah Earl and I hung out a the bar watching the pelicans dive for fish, was making me hungry, or maybe it was the smell of roasting fish outside. We ordered some beers and about 15 minutes later Chaka Demus showed up so I told Jah Earl to come back around five or so to pick me up.

About 20 minutes later Pliers showed up. I brought each of them a signed copy of Reggae Island (they appeared in the first edition in 1992), they loved the book, thought it was a great project and wanted me to do some more picture another time, cool with me. So far while waiting I think I had four or five Red Stripes and Chaka Demus had several glasses of Brandy, when Pliers showed up he ordered some Cognac, so I guess we were ready to shoot. I drove with Pliers in his decked out black pick-up truck. He drove to some ghetto lane where I got out and checked it out with one of the bredrin outside, looked like a cool spot to shoot, found a place near this wrecked car. They wanted a group of kids in the shot so one of the guys rounded up about a dozen kids to sit on and around the car. I used the fish eye lens and shots both color and b&w. With the sun setting we did about five different shots, I think they should be happy.

Chaka Demus drove me back to Jolly’s and we got there about 5:30, Jah Earl wasn’t there yet so I waited and had Maria (we’re now on a first name basis) get me a next Red Stripe. Jah Earl showed up about ten minutes later with his girlfriend. We decided to have some more drinks since we now had to wait for the bridge to open back up at 7. It’s a beautiful night with a slight breeze and lots of stars, by this time I thought I could see the space station, or maybe it was just all the drinks and ganja. We enjoyed the cool ocean breeze and several more beers before getting on our way. I got home by 8 and my bredrin Tom called and said we were not going out tonight, there would be more going on tomorrow night. Am not much feeling like going out by now anyway so is a good thing, jus’ gonna stay home and watch TV.

Bassist Earl “Flabba” Holt (right) takes a break during a recording session while Sylvan Morris, the sound engineer who worked on several of Bob Marley’s recordings sits behind the board. Standing behind Sylvan Morris is songwriter, musician and producer Sangie Davis who wrote “Wake Up And Live” for Bob Marley. In addition to working with Marley, Sangie has also composed many memorable hits like “Girlie Girlie” by Sofia George “Make Ends Meet” by Dennis Brown, “Let’s Dance” by Judy Mowatt, “Where Is The Love” by Marcia Griffith as well as many others.

I had just heard today about Barry Lewellyn of the Heptones, his sweet voice will be missed. Below is an article from the Jamaica Observer.

‘Barry Heptones’ dies in hospital

BARRINGTON Llewellyn, founding member of the group Heptones is dead. He was 63.

According to Earl Morgan — founder of the trio — Llewellyn began complaining of not feeling well and was rushed to the University Hospital in St Andrew on Tuesday. He passed away at 3:15 a.m. the day after. No cause was given for his death.