Exhibition Review

 Jane Bown "Exposures", Winchester Discovery Centre 23 March - 20 May 2012

In 1949 Jane Bown took her first portrait for the Observer newspaper, the "sitter"was Betrand Russell and that picture along with 47 others are on display in a new exhibition of Bown's work at the Winchester Discovery Centre. What was so remarkable about her photography is that she consistently achieved stunning results using the most simplest of techniques. Using black and white film in either a Rolleiflex or an Olympus OM1, she never had an assistant, used only natural light and rarely exposed more than two rolls. This economy was a major factor in ensuring she was "able to foster an absolute immediacy witgh the subject that in turn produces wonderfully insightful portraits". (DODD, L., 2009  Exposures Jane Bown. Guardian Books).

Dodd's words ring so true as you stare at some of her most famous work in this exhibition which consists entirely of images of the famous or once famous, from Orson Welles to Bob Hope, the Queen to Bjork and Samuel Beckett (probably her most famous portrait) to Truman Capote. The unnasuming Bown often charmed her subjects into full cooperation even to the extent notoriously difficult people like Richard Nixon went out of their way to ensure "Jane had her shot".

Interestingly the photographs on display have all been digitally printed on fibre-based photo baryta paper, with one exception a silver gelatin print of Rudolf Nureyev, never before printed.

As Dodd - who organised Bown's archive - writes later in his introduction to the book that accompanies this exhibition of her work "is remarkably democratic with photographs of celebrities cheek-by-jowl with ones of individuals who have long faded from from the public consciousness". This really is a wonderful chance to see the best work of one of Fleet Street's unsung photographic greats and if going by some of the following comments in the vistor's comments book are anything to go by you will not be disappointed - "wonderful", "striking", "fantastic", "takes your breath away", "excellent" were all there despite the exhibition only being open a couple of hours.

                                       Sinead O'Connor - taken backstage during rehearsals 1992