Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Jane Bown  (Read 378 times)

Rob C

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24372
Jane Bown
« on: January 11, 2025, 05:32:49 pm »

An interesting, today almost mystical kind of photographer, working practically her entire career for The Observer newspaper.

I don’t know if she ever made any money out of that career, apparently always buying second-hand Olympus cameras after having let go a primitive Rolleiflex tlr. Her thing, reportedly, was to use only two lenses: a 50mm and an 85mm, exposing onto Tri X. The story goes that she never used an exposure meter, preferring to shoot everything by window light, at f2.8 and a 60th of a second. In one brief interview that I watched this evening, she did admit to using colour for a year or two when the Sunday Colour Supplements became the vogue in Britain (I liked the Sunday Times ones best, but the Observer and the Telegraph did them too, if memory serves.) Now, if that exposure technique is not simply myth, it must have given the darkroom guys quite a few headaches… Though, in one interview, she made a dismissive snort when asked about digital, it strikes me that she would have enjoyed working with a contemporary mirrorless wonder, where exposure and large screens would have been quite fun and saved much secret exposure doubt, if she ever had any.

There have been several photographers of repute who make similar claims to not needing meters; I used one for every black/white shot I took. (On the other hand, outdoor transparencies were easier, because if you nailed the highlights, that was it: everything else just had to sit where it sat.) It seems to me that guessing correct exposure is always easier when somebody else has to process the films and make the prints. ;-)

I would include links, but those I found weren’t particularly good, and her photographs deserve better. As an aside, and with no disrespect to Jane Bown intended, photographs always look more impressive when they are of somebody famous. On such truisms are careers nurtured, developed and bought to their peak.


« Last Edit: January 11, 2025, 05:40:50 pm by Rob C »
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up