Jane Bown and Mona, The Old House, Alton, 2011
Jane Bown, CBE (1925-2014, British) is most famous for her black and white portraits of famous celebrities. Her style has often been compared to that of Henri Carter-Bresson.
Bown was involved in the D-Day invasion as a mapper, and due to her employment by the government was able to secure a grant to attend the Guildford School of Art where she studied photography. Bown’s first photography jobs were taking wedding portraits. However, she quickly secured her fame in 1949 after taking a photograph of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Thereafter, she photographed hundreds of celebrities throughout her long career with the Observer including John Lennon, Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau with his cat, Brassai, and Queen Elizabeth, to name only a few.
Bown was concerned about the spontaneity of a photograph and worked quickly. She is known to have never prepared and often knew nothing of her subjects. She is quoted as saying, “For that second when I look through the lens I absolutely love the sitter…And then I’m gone.” Her main concern was always the light, but she never used the camera’s light meter. Camera equipment did not interest her. She used only a Rolliflex in the early 60’s and then switched to using only secondhand Olympus cameras. Bown said that the last time she had changed her camera was 50 years ago, and “All I need is a good cat and the right light.” Bown worked primarily in black and white saying that “Color is too noisy…The eye doesn’t know where to rest.”
Just as Bown caught the essence of her celebrities, she also captured cats’ true nature and emotions. A cat lover herself, she compiled a book of cat photographs, Jane Bown: Cats.
Bown died at age 89. Lord Snowdon described her as “a kind of English Cartier-Bresson” who produced “photography at its best. She doesn’t rely on tricks or gimmicks, just simple, honest recording, but with a shrewd and intellectual eye.”
Cat Action Trust, London, 1980
Cat show, Olympia, 1976
David Knopfler’s Kitten, 1979
Fish market, Milford Haven Docks, 1979
Cat in a Restaurant Window, Penzance, 1960
Cat on a Door Sill
Jean Cocteau with Madeleine, Paris, 1950
Laughing Cat, Italy, 1985
Miss Wyatt who had been feeding cats in Fitzroy Square since 1953, taken in 1978
Queenie and Dusty, Sevenoaks, 1967
Show Cat in Travelling Basket, National Cat Club Show, 1976
Show Cats at the National Cat Club Show, 1983
Tombola, Tom Gosling and Tammy, Hampshire, 1985
White Cat, Hampshire, c.1987
White Cat
Want to know more about the cat in art, history and literature? Then Revered and Reviled is the book for you. Now available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle formats.
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