Looking for the light: Jane Bown (2)

 I missed the cinema showing of this film so decided to buy the DVD as I didn't want to miss out! I wasn't disappointed -this documentary film by Luke Dodd and Michael Whyte is an excellent film in its own right but also a great introduction to the work of Jane Bown. 
I enjoyed the mix of conversation, anecdote and reflection used to create a really thoughtful portrait of Bown. She worked for the Observer newspaper over six decades and the inclusion of many of her iconic photographs of the famous and well known personalities of the last century and this one are a real treat to observe on the television. 

 

As an interviewee Jane Bown reveals very little of herself as the photographer. She talks very sparingly of how she approached her images of people - we learn more from those who worked with her or who had their picture taken by her. She worked quickly using two cameras, two lenses, usually no more than two rolls of film and no light meter preferring to use the available light from the window- always in black and white. Not many of us could emulate this style of working! 
I like her images very much - her use of texture and shape really stand out. She started out as a photographer with no interest in people. Indeed, it was her study of the eye of a cow that gave her entry to the Observer which became her 'family' over the next sixty years. This study so impressed the Observer's picture editor that she commented ' if you can do a cow's eye, you can take a portrait'.


My tutor asked me a while ago why I thought that Bown was not better known and I mulled this over while I watched the DVD. Don McCullan said that she was not a competitive woman. And she was clearly not interested in photographic theory,developments or technology- she liked shape and texture which is clearly reflected in the amazing textural impact in her images. I think she treated photography and the Observer as her home,compensating perhaps for a very sad childhood. She was  happiest moving about seeing things and taking photos...

Working in a mainly male environment, quietly determined with a no-nonsense style of working, she was self-effacing, an intuitive photographer who had no desire to 'promote' her work. I think that her body of work reflects a consistency of subject matter and approach and very little experimentation to draw attention from a wider audience. But maybe her view that ' photographers should be seen nor heard', explains best why she is not better known.