What can a real diehard reggae fan do is exemplified by Alex Bartsch, a photographer and a reggae fan? Bartsch turned a reggae fan listening to Bob Marley, the legendary Jamaican singer and songwriter. It was his father who introduced him to reggae music when he was only 10 years old.
This craze for reggae goaded him to start collecting the record albums of all the reggae artists as part of a ‘music experience’. His collection spanned a decade, from 1967 to 1987.
Bartsch’s next step was to trace out the original locations depicted in UK reggae covers in London, photograph it along with the cover and turn it into a photo series. For this, he started a detailed search in the city for these locations.
Once he found the exact location, he did something exciting. He superimposed the album sleeve cover against the original background in a way that the image on the album cover completed the scene. He then photographed the two to create his photo series.
However, by Bartsch’s own admission, this task was not easy. Says he, “It often starts with the information on the record sleeve but many of them don’t offer much to go on. I’ve learned through doing this project that a good place to start is the area where the label was based. Sometimes, it was just outside the door of the record label.”
