Book: Exposures by Jane Bown

Book: "Exposures" by Jane Bown

Jane Bown was a staff photographer for The Observer for six decades and started with a portrait of Bertrand Russell in 1949.  Her work on The Observer mainly involved weekly assignments.  Her style is immediately recognisable.  She used 40 year old SLR cameras.  She is famous for her remark that "It's the photographer, not the camera, that makes the picture."

She works predominantly in black and white and shoots rapidly.  She uses available light only, and gauges the settings by how light falls on the back of her hand.  This fosters an absolute immediacy with the subject that, in turn, produces wonderfully insightful portraits.

Jane Bown: "I prefer the simplicity and directness of black and white.  It emphasises the underlying pattern of light and dark and confers a natural harmony on the subject.  Black and white is quiet, where colour is noisy and distracting, and I feel that it allows the personality of the sitter to come through."

She is wholly concentrated on the face, in particular the eyes.

She thought that it was impossible to take a bad picture abroad, acknowledging the easy exoticism of images from other cultures.

In most portraits the subject is placed centre frame.

Some sitters are photographed looking straight at the camera, not smiling as in the portrait of Truman Capote below:

Truman Capote by Jane Bown

Other sitters are photographed looking away from the camera, a 3/4 view as in the portrait of Evelyn Waugh below:

Evelyn Waugh by Jane Bown

 Sometimes the subject is engaged in an activity as with Beryl Reid:

Beryl Reid by Jane Bown

The focus is mainly on the eyes with catch lights in the eyes.

A shallow depth of field is used, often with a plain background.

Jane Bown manages to capture people without their "performance" face on.  Her preferred camera setup is a shutter speed of 1/125s at f2.8, (gives a shallow depth of field).