Jane Bown 1925-2014

Jane Bown at home, surrounded by some of her photographs.

We are reached this morning with news of the death of the great Jane Bown. The quintessential photojournalistic portraitist, she worked for the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, the UK's The Observer, for more than half a century, beginning 65 years ago.

Renowned for modest reticence and for the simplicty of her style, she worked quietly and quickly, without calling attention to herself, using natural light.

An earlier photograph of Jane from her home.
Both photos are screen grabs from the Channel 4 profile below.

The picture above is this one, by Madame Yevonde, 1967. This is from a bromide print in the Yevonde Portrait Archive of
Britain's National Portrait Gallery.

Just this year a film documentary of her life was released, called Looking for Light. It's not available online that I know of. [UPDATE: The DVD is available from Amazon UK. There is also a Limited Premium Edition that includes a signed original print. NOTE that these will be Region 2 (European Union) DVDs. These play on Apple Computers (what I use) if you reset the region, but you are only allowed to reset the region five times!! Be careful. Thanks to Gill R and Bob Curtis for this. —Ed.]

Here's a brief recent profile of her from British television:

She published many books, most out of print now, including Exposures (UK link) from 2009, Unknown Bown (2007) (UK link), Faces (2002) (UK link), and The Gentle Eye (1982) (UK link).

The book Faces is subtitled "The creative process behind great portraits," but Jane sums it up in a jot: "What people say to me is how do I do this. And I say, just look."

Observer Editor John Mulholland, quoted in the Guardian obituary, said "her contribution to the paper’s history, as well to Britain’s artistic legacy, is immense, and will long survive her. She was loved by her colleagues and adored by our readers. We will miss her hugely."

She was 89.

Mike
(Thanks to Guy Batey and Leslie Ashe)

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Elaine: "Oh, I loved Jane Bown's work! I still have her book Faces. She used Olympus film cameras. Her work really inspired me. She used natural lighting, which is what I love. She was such an inspiration to me. R.I.P., Jane.  :-(  "

David Paterson: "In the '70s and early '80s I worked quite regularly for the Observer's Sunday magazine and was fortunate to meet Jane Bown a couple of times. She was friendly but brisk and there was a strong impression of an acute intelligence in spite of her quiet manner. She was a legend even then—cameras in a shopping bag—and will be greatly mourned and missed even though she retired quite some time ago. A true great."

Alan Hill: "Ars est celare artem (art is about concealing art)—has there ever been a better example of the truth of this old saying?"

Comments

[Patrick Dodds]

Thanks for the embedded video - a lovely gentle piece about a seemingly lovely gentle woman.

[John Krumm]

Her shot of Beckett is amazing, especially when you read how she did it. The Guardian has a great sampling of her shots linked from the obituary here:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/dec/21/jane-bown-a-life-in-photography-in-pictures

I'd love to see the documentary.

[Manuel]

Sad news.
Her portraits struck an exquisite balance between expression and technical perfection. She was a true master of lighting.
It might not be of general relevance, but some days ago, intrigued by her portrait of Samuel Beckett, I searched her name on Google. The search retrieved a self-portrait of her holding a silver Olympus OM-2, identical to the one that has been giving me infinite pleasure for the last eighteen months. It made me feel so proud of owning one of these cameras!
Now I found out she passed away. She will be forever remembered for her wonderful portraits, from the aforementioned Beckett to Morrissey. R. I. P., Jane Bown.

[Malcolm Myers]

I thought her work was wonderful and my aim has always been to be able to take portraits like hers.

[Gary]

A wonderful, wonderful photographer. Modest to the point of anonymity, always letting her photographs do her talking for her. And what a voice those photographs have!

[Dean Johnston]

I constantly return to her book Faces. Last night in fact, after returning home late, I paused in front of my bookcase before heading upstairs and just looked at the spine of the book for a few moments and pondered on how amazing she is. It saddens me that now my thoughts will be how amazing she was.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

A life well spent in photography. I am not familiar with Jane's work but I'm now resolved to remedy that personal deficit.

[Andrew Lamb]

Unknown Bown is a lovely book. Really like her early work, shot with a Rollei.

[Anthony Baines]

I'm very sad to hear of Jane Bown's passing. Her work was inspirational for me, not least because of its (apparent) simplicity while revealing so much about her subject. I shall go back to her book Faces today.

[Stevan Latkovic]

She was a wonderful photographer. Her portrait of Samuel Beckett is simply outstanding. But ... Isn't it an old Pentax in the second portrait?

[Gill R]

Thanks for that interview clip, Mike: I'd not seen that before. Jane Bown was such an inspiring woman.

The documentary "Looking for Light: is available on Amazon UK, btw.

[Gary Haigh]

I went to England from Australia as a young photographer and first saw her work in the Observer newspaper and was so inspired. Her shot of Beckett is a knockout.