Jane Bown is a British photographer who has worked for The Observer newspaper in the United Kingdom since 1949. Her portraits of the famous of the 20th and 21st centuries have received critical acclaim, earning her an exhibition of her work in the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1980.
She was born in Dorset, and first worked as a chart corrector, which included a role in plotting the D-Day invasion. She studied photography at Guildford College under Ifor Thomas. She started out as a child portrait photographer, but got her big break when she received a telegram in 1949 from Mechthild Nawiasky an Observer picture editor, asking her to photograph the philosopher Bertrand Russell.
She works primarily in black-and-white, using available light, with a forty year old camera. She has photographed hundreds of subjects, including Orson Welles, Samuel Beckett, Sir John Betjeman, Woody Allen. Her extensive photojournalism output includes series on Hop Pickers, Greenham Common evictions, Butlin's holiday resort, the British Seaside, and in 2002, Glastonbury festival.
Exhibitions include 'The Gentle Eye', National Portrait Gallery, London.
In 2007 her work on the Greenham Common evictions was selected by Val Williams and Susan Bright as part of 'How We Are: Photographing Britain', the first major survey of photography to be held at Tate Britain.
I really like this work as its different but captures your eye. The black and white portraits at the top i really like and they stand out loads and dont look like they have been edited they just the photography at its best. The photos underneath are also really good and they ones in colour are nice and bright.
