A new exhibition by one of Britain’s best-loved photographers, including previously unseen portraits of Lauren Bacall, Cecil Beaton, John Betjeman, Robert de Niro, Mick Jagger, Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Nureyev, and many more… opens at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, from 15 January to 5 March 2011.
Jane Bown’s first photograph for The Observer was published in December 1949, beginning a career with the newspaper that has spanned six decades. Now, previously unpublished pictures, the ones that didn’t make it on to the page, are brought together in this definitive collection of her work.
Of the 50 assignments included in the exhibition over half the pictures used are alternative or unused images from portrait sessions for which Jane Bown is already well known. After every shoot the ‘definitive’ image used tended to be chosen by the picture editor, sometimes on the basis of something as arbitrary as the space available and pictures were regularly cropped. Yet Jane Bown often captured a range of images that were just as compelling, if not better, than the ones chosen for publication, all which have been meticulously archived and are included in this exhibition.
Working almost exclusively in black and white, and in natural light, Jane Bown is known for working quickly, and unobtrusively, with an unerring instinct for capturing the perfect moment, even in the midst of a media scrum or rushed mid-interview. This collection brings together some of her most classic portraits, illustrating why Jane Bown has been hailed as one of the UK’s pre-eminent portrait photographers.
15 January – 5 March 2011
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Aberystwyth University
SY23 3DE
www.aber.ac.uk/artscentre
