Her work is familiar but why don't I know Jane Bown

Playing around on Google this morning I stumbled upon a portrait of Sinead O'Connor by Jane Bown.  It's a great portrait that says so much about the singer yet shows so little of her. She is looking down, her head facing downwards and slightly resting on her shoulder.  This picture mood well by shifting focus from the features we expect to focus on in a stereotypical portrait.  

Sinead O'Connor by Jane Bown

A further search on Bown's work led me to Samuel Beckett's portrait.  I have seen this photograph so many times I feel like I own it, and now at last I know who actually took it.

Samuel Beckett by Jane Bown

Born in 1925, Bown is a British photographer that works in black and white using natural available light.

She has shot hundreds of portraits from Woody Allen to John Lennon, Cartier-Bresson to most recently a request from the Queen.

Bown has shot portraits for The Observer for decades and they have put together an online portfolio of her work - The Complete Jane Bown, A lifetime in Photographs.

She says of herself, "People describe me as a portrait photographer, but I am not.  I am a hack."

There is also an interesting article from the Observer a couple of years back about Bown together with a video where she talks about her work.

Her latest book Exposures is a retrospective of her life's work.