JANE BOWN (1925-)

“She is one of the great recorders of our time, a kind of English Cartier-Bresson. I imagine she works with very little equipment, probably no lights at all, and the result is photography at its best. She doesn’t rely on gimmicks or tricks, just simple, honest recording but with a shrewd and intellectual eye. That is surely what photography is about.”
Lord Snowdon

Jane Bown left the WRNS and started on a photography course at the Guildford School of Photography under Ifor Thomas where she took her first ever photograph: of a church door. Then, on an impulse, having spent two terms feeling rather useless, she took a picture of the world reflected in a cow’s eye – the first Jane Bown original. Later, when The Observer decided to follow Picture Post’s example and take photography seriously, she was recommended to David Astor and taken on by Mechtild Nawiasky. Her first assignment was Bertrand Russell. She famously uses no complicated equipment or assistants, just checking the light with the back of her hand before getting the perfect portrait.

Publications include:
Exposures (Guardian Books, 2009)
Unknown Bown (Guardian Newspapers Ltd, 2007)
Faces (Collins & Brown, 2001)
Pillars of the Church (Continuum International Publishing, 1991)
The Gentle Eye (The Observer/Thames & Hudson, 1980)

Click here to see a gallery of images by Jane Bown