Portraits [antikvár]

FOREWORD I admire Jane Bown as a person as much as I admire her work as a photographer. She reminds me of an Oxford don, blending into the background, with no funny hats nor loud clothes. She is one of the great recorders of our time, a kind of English Cartier-Bresson. I imagine she works with very litde equipment, probably no lights at all, and the result is photography at its best. She doesn't rely on gimmicks or tricks, just simple, honest recording, but with a shrewd and intellectual eye. That is surely what photography is about. Over the years I have greatly admired her work in the Observer. It has always achieved a standard of quality that is stunningly good. I'd love to ask her if she considers photography to be an art form. I wonder if she would like her photographs framed, on a wall. I doubt it. I suspect she keeps them in folders. I wonder too whether she hates talking about photography as much as I do. I'm sure she never discusses speeds and stops and filters and which is the best camera to use -one that doesn't break down is the simple answer. Her chief concern is the use of light, especially daylight. You can nearly always tell what the light source is in a photograph by looking into the subject's eyes. When you use complicated flash guns in the studio the eyes look wrong, almost too clear, with untypical, large pupils. Often the white umbrella is reflected in them. But look at Jane Bown's picture of Paul Getty and you see a little window reflected there and how his pupils have remained small. 1 think eyes are the most important thing in a picture. I'm sure Jane Bown would agree. Her sitters' eyes draw you into her pictures; for her, eye contact is clearly very important. I have never had the honour of being photographed by her, so I don't know if she talks as she works or tries to get a reaction from her sitter. I imagine she goes quiedy about her business. But underneath her sim- plicity and humility, she is probably just as nervous as the rest of us when we go on an assignment. Many people find being photographed an unpleasant experience; they want only to escape from the camera. It helps greatly if, like Jane Bown, the photographer has a one-to-one relationship with the sitter, without the distraction of an assistant or another person. Jane Bown is careful to tell the truth, not to distort. Her pictures are penetrating and informative, yet full of kindness. There's so much nonsense talked about photographers. They are completely unimportant; it's the subject which is all-important and that's what Jane Bown captures so magnificently. She catches moments which are typical - Sir Harold Acton imitating himself with his book on the Medicis; Mr Scargill in front of his own portrait, which is very telling; Lord Shinwell's humour and inquisitiveness; the kindness and humour of Lord Denning, and that haunting academic seriousness of Enoch Powell. She has captured the charm of Lord Hailsham, plus the fact that he's not someone who will go down in history for his dress-sense but as one of the world's nicest and wittiest human beings. Mr Heath, very much 'being photographed'. I love the picture of John Betjeman in Cornwall, capturing his wonderful laugh and the shape of his suit, which was so typical of him and his poetry. All her pictures prove that black and white is still a force to be reckoned with. She has managed to avoid working in colour for colour's sake. As a result her photographs - I prefer to call them photographs because I find the word portrait rather pretentious -have a unique quality. This book gives us a wonderful opportunity to see the seriousness of her work, as a whole, in a lasting way. I don't consider photography to be one of the fine arts, but Jane Bown is undoubtedly a great artist.