Synopses & Reviews
Presented here uncropped and in their full glory, these photographs show why Jane Bown has been hailed as the natural successor of Cartier-Bresson and as one of the UK's preeminent portrait photographers
In this new collection, Jane Brown's astonishingly candid photographs are artfully presented, and behind-the-scenes unpublished pictures that hit the newsroom floor are finally revealed. Working almost exclusively in black and white and with natural light, Jane produces images that reveal the private side of her famous subjects. She works quickly, unobtrusively, and decisively, often snatching great pictures under impossible circumstances. She has an unerring instinct for capturing the telling moment, even in the midst of a media assault or rushed in mid-interview. At every shoot, Jane takes numerous wonderful studies, but the "definitive" image is usually chosen by the Observer picture editor, sometimes on the basis of something as arbitrary as how much space was available on the page. Here, Jane's photos finally get to speak for themselves.
Review
"She can look at a person and she knows, instinctively, straight away, who they are." Björk
Synopsis
These iconic and never-before-seen portraits by one of Britain’s bestloved photographers comprise subjects as diverse as the Queen, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, Samuel Beckett, Bjork, the Beatles, Woody Allen, Bob Hope, Jean Cocteau, Richard Nixon, and Evelyn Waugh.
About the Author
Jane Bown has been a photographer for the Observer newspaper since 1949. In that time, there have been several exhibitions of her work, including a one-woman show at the National Portrait Gallery. Her books include Faces, The Gentle Eye, Men of Consequence, Pillars of the Church, Rock 19632003, The Singular Cat, Unknown Bown 19471967, and Women of Consequence. Iconic photographer David Bailey's work appears in such magazines as GQ and Vogue, and his subjects have ranged from The Rolling Stones to Naomi Campbell to Belle and Sebastian.