Jane Bown - Photographer

One of the difficulties with studying a subject as vast and a diverse as Photography is to know which of the many eminent practitioners, living or dead to research. On the basis that we should contextualise our work and understand where it fits into contemporary art photography I understand that there will be some that I have to engage with more than others. This has led me to a deeper understanding of the works of Edward Weston, Robert Frank, Karl Blossfeldt etc where my practice is drawing from their oeuvre.  From time to time though lesser known photographers pass my window of interest and although I have no particular connection with their work I know I have to look closer at them and their work. In recent months this has occurred with Jane Bown (1925-2014) largely due to the coincidence that I read The Observer and that much of this module is centred on Press images. Bown worked for The Observer as a photographer for over 50 years, working with film (35mm and 6x6) and mostly black and white. Her portraits of the rich and famous are exemplars of how the art of available light photography is a craft that is not well understood, except by a few. In 2014, directors Luke Dodd and Michael Whyte released the documentary film Looking For Light, featuring conversations with Bown about her life and interviews with those she photographed and worked with, including Edna O'Brien, Lynn Barber and Richard Ashcroft. To date the film is my primary source for research, preferring in this instance the work of a film maker to portray a photographer.

The documentary has two stories. The first is that of her life, one full of muddle and insecurity. She was passed around between aunts for many of the early years and then off to join the wrens during the Second World War. Photographs of her though show a happy girl, a girl who did not resent change, someone who was happy to adopt a family, tag along and learn to make the best of what were few options. During the war she worked in map marking and after had no real idea of what to do next. In a demob meeting someone suggested photography and after a few calls she found a course being run by an ex Royal Navy officer. In her own words she didn't enjoy much of the course, preferring to sit and look out of the window and at the weekly critique sessions refused to join in. After college in 1949 she contacted The Observer with a request. "I want to go to Paris, If you pay the fair I will take 4 portraits for you". They said yes and she was given a list of names, so with her friend she travelled to Paris, photographed amongst others Jean Cocteau ( her without a word of French) and returned with the film. Following this test her first assignment was to photograph the philosopher and writer Bertrand Russell, an experience she described as terrifying. The simplicity of the whole business  is quite adorable, but perhaps the world in the late 1940s was a simpler place. No CV writing, no interview techniques to learn, just a naive (by our standards) approach and a bold acceptance of her own abilities. This simplicity follows in her photography. Seldom did she use anything other than daylight, preferring being near a window or at the worst during November and December maybe an anglepoise lamp. Her equipment was simple. Either a Rollieflex or later the Olympus OM1, most of which were second hand and carried about in a wicker basket. As Polly Toynybee (a writer for the Guardian) relates that Bown did not have the persona one thinks of as a press photographer. Rankin describes her as a "package". Home Counties, well dressed small woman who had an amazing talent that probably put her amongst the finest portrait photographers in the UK with The Telegraph describing her (in their obituary) as "a kind of English Cartier Bresson".

Jane Bown Self Portrait 1949

The documentary follows Bown on a trip to old family homes and a graveyard, where with the help of one of her sons she reminisces on her early days at The Observer and in detail some of the assignments. Probably the single most iconic Bown image is of the Irish author and playwright Samuel Beckett. Beckett had at first given permission for photographs then later in the day declined. Bown with her tenacity stood outside the stage door for hours waiting for him to leave and put it quite bluntly that he had to have his photograph taken. He agreed that 5 frames were allowed and Bown took 7. His stern semi scowling pose is most certainly not that of a willing participant and has become synonymous with Bown. The full frame image below is the one preferred by Bown. The version often used removes the brick wall to the left to therefore show a complete black background, a version that Bown is not happy with.

 Samuel Beckett - Jane Bown, 1976

Amongst many personal and biographical facts we are privy to in the film there are many photography techniques to be learnt. What we learn early is that the photographer is the second violin in the duet of journalist and photographer when on an assignment. The pairing when sent out would have a meeting place established (probably by Press Officers or Agents) and a prescribed amount of time that the subject would be available. Most often the journalist would start the process and Bown would sit out of the way waiting her turn, getting anxious by the minute as her time slot at the end became shorter. Also interesting is the reaction of journalists if Bown went first in the session and started chatting to the sitter, gaining their confidence. Her inoffensive style allowing them to open up and reveal more than when the journalist (and their pointed, aggressive questions) did the interview. Bown describes The Observer as a family, her family and the thought of working for any other publication never entered her thoughts. Her description of washing her hair in the darkroom and drying it in the film cabinet is an insight of how it was possible then to become part of a place of work with loyalties that have in the recent past become lost. When she married the editor/owner of The Observer, David Astor agreed to give her away as she had nobody closer than him at the time.
Clearly with her various exhibitions and books she is an exemplar of the press photographer from that post war period. Looking closely at the portrait images I am struck by her style. The subject often sitting and her standing (although she is short in stature) gives her a slightly elevated point of view that makes the sitter look up very slightly. A technique that then uses the eyes in a dynamic way to engage with the camera. Also her apparent use of a limited number of focal length lenses with her favourites being 50mm and 85mm. 
Her preferred situation was to photograph the subject near to a window, rate her TriX at 400 and set 1/60 at f2.8. A simple no fuss approach that when inspected closely does work incredibly well. By working quickly (she seldom had more than 10 minutes to complete the shoot) with no fuss the subject did not feel intimidated. A smart, small quiet lady was taking the photographs, using a small camera, there was no threat. They would relax with her and it was then when she would see their personality and take the frame. She never tried to embarrass them with overtly off guard images, all she wanted was to see behind the eyes and capture a moment of them as themselves, not the contrived image of the agent or press office.

In 1985 she was awarded an MBE and again in 1995 a CBE. 2000 saw her receive an Honorary Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society and in 2009 she received an honorary degree from The Open University, 40 years after her first assignment.   

The documentary film has an air of sadness as we see her late in her life. Bown spends time being very contemplative of her life and perhaps due to her age she doesn't smile very much. At one point she reveals that in the whole of her life the only times when she was happy was when she was working and taking photographs

A selection of her portraits can be seen here.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/dec/21/jane-bown-a-life-in-photography-in-pictures

She died on December 21, 2014

Edit: 22 August 2015

I now have a copy of Bown's book Exposures, Guardian Books, 2009

One of the facets of photography practice that I champion is the print. There is no photograph without there being a print and while others may say this is untrue in the digital age I disagree. There is of course the opportunity to see images on a screen either for the viewers gratification or for the purposes of post processing and editing. The later of the two is of course part of the technical/artistic process in bringing the image from concept to realisation, if the image needs a digital phase in its manufacture. To view photographs on a screen is a transient act of some visual stimulation but there is nothing lasting. Once the button is pressed it is gone and as a photograph it no longer exists. Exposures is a book of 130 monochrome photographs by Jane Bown (and one or two others who photographed her at work) that with some rudimentary care will last forever. It lays here on my desk open at page 6 and I am looking at a portrait of Eve Arnold. It will be there all day while I work so that I can glance at it or if I feel the need stare at it. I may turn the pages randomly and let it fall open somewhere else, who knows as it and my actions in owning it are now totally in my control. Each time I look at it I see something fresh, a small area of tone that I consider, ask myself if Bown noticed that or if she wanted something more or less. At no time do I have to interact with a switch and become binary and my time appreciating the work is never linear. The quality of the production, printing, paper choice and the text is sublime with no aspect of the purchase that one would or could criticise. Nor the price, which direct from the Guardian bookshop is now £24. The same as some coffees and a snack at a motorway services for two people.
I guess at some time in the future I will look at all of the pages in chronological order, but for now a random viewing technique is preferred, once again a non digital activity, as I dont have to chose a page number and click on it, I just allow the pages to fall open at random. Bown's portraits are more than head and shoulders. They are more often head and upper torso and that allows us to see more of what surrounds the subject. For the most part these images are to illustrate a story in The Observer, so seeing for instance Edna O'Brien, p 108 we see her, her upper torso and her arms which are at an angle as her hands are holding her neck. A charming woman with a necklace and a bracelet, both understated pieces that tell us she is not a loud brash woman. Behind her a couch and bookshelves, heavy with books. Again we know from the style of the furniture and the number of books that the lady is well read and has good quality artifacts around her. The place looks cosy and comfortable. If Bown had gone in close we would have seen O'Brien's head, maybe shoulders but nothing else. By stepping back we still know what she looks like and we see more and know more. The essence of good communication.
In contrast the portrait of Boris Karloff p, 116 is a much closer crop. The landscape format slices off the top of his head and the bottom of his chin is on the bottom of the frame. It is heavily side lit with most of the left hand side in deep shadow. It is a moody severe image. The background is not really definablele, maybe a seat back, which looks like a railway seat or aeroplane. This ambiguity is good because we are not to know and Bown has worked here to make sure it is only the facial features we see. The methodology and practice suits the subject, a mysterious man. The book is without doubt a masterclass in portrait photography away from the studio and has inspired me to look at it every day and make way for this type of work in my own practice if I ever get the chance.

Nigel Shafran

Nigel Shafran (1964 -  )

During Assignment 3 I photographed some washing up on the draining board in the kitchen. The image was never used in that assignment as it didn’t  fit in with the style I needed although on its own it is a  strong photograph and was later used as one of my entries in the 45^th Eastern Open, where it was selected and won an award.  Another reason for not selecting it into the assignment was it didn’t say much about being a Carer, we all have washing up and it could have been the washing up from any home. What washing does show is a punctuation mark in the day. It comes after eating, which it turn comes after cooking a meal and so is part of a simple narrative of the day. What I didn’t know about this image was that it looks very similar to the work of Nigel Shafran. Such coincidences are rare and it is embarrassing to have to explain that I am not plagiarising Shafran’s work as I found him after making my image. This confirms that there is nothing new in image making and gives me confidence to continue in this genre.

Shafran began his photographic career as a fashion photographer in the 1980’s and worked on a number of prestigious magazines, only to become disillusioned with that world and has since turned his camera inward, onto his family and his own close environment, employing techniques in still life usually associated with painting than photography.

Having found Shafran and viewed his work online I obtained a book of his work, Edited Photographs 1992 - 2004, Photoworks, 2004

Shafran’s work is inspirational and he is now on a small list of photographers who are having an influence on how I think and work in photography. The shared interest is in how we can trace human activity through the statements that are left behind when the humans have gone, the placing of objects, the constructions and ephemera, as seen in washing up.

The images are simple, almost to the extent that they are banal, but there is language in them through semiotics and interpretation, often something left for the viewer to complete and an element of ambiguity.

Shafran’s images are not studio constructions, they are found objects of every day life. Similar in some respects to the work of Edward Weston who had a similar affinity with the found objects such as his toilet, peppers and a cabbage. There is however careful placing of the camera and an acute awareness of the natural light falling onto the scene. In recent years there is wide discourse on the “real” and the realist. Straight or pure photography is a strong voice with many in contemporary practice and I am one who feels at ease with this genre, in preference to work that is being described as “post photography” with its reliance on overt manipulation and the inclusion of the bizarre. Some confuse straight photography with simple photography and that is in fact far from its intention. The connotations, the signified and the semiotics within an image do not require the work to be overtly complicated.

Shafran works mainly with a large format camera (often using a Polaroid frame before the main image), making his work as life unfolds and this requires a dedicated approach with strict criteria and an artists eye for what is right and wrong to include when surrounded by endless potential. His high production values are a feature of his work I am interested in and seek  to include in my own work. I no longer have a 5x4 camera but will continues this type of work using 6x6 format film.

Shafran has attracted much critical discourse and during an interview in 2000 with Paul Elliman Shafran explains “why washing up ?”

“I wanted to start the New Year with something optimistic. And Personal. Something with lots of shapes, where shapes would change, keep changing. Also something in which the light was important, the kitchen window or the overhead kitchen light, I mean, I really wanted to have one lit by lightning, havent got that yet. There are signs of ageing in it, like signs of time, of course”

Charlotte Cotton talks of his work and its intuitive nature.

“With an understated photographic style, use of ambient light and relatively long exposures, he transforms these scenes into poetic observations about the ways we conduct our lives through our unconscious acts of ordering, stacking and displaying objects. There is something highly intuitive in Shafran’s way of working”   (Cotton, 2009, p.121)

Shafran’s work is widely published. He has six books, numerous awards, five solo exhibitions, many group exhibitions and has lectured and a number of  universities and art colleges.

References:

Cotton, C., 2009. The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames and Hudson

Photographs to be added when permissions received.

 

Edwin Smith (1912-1971)

Edwin Smith (1912 - 1971)

A recent posting on www.weareoca.com  by Andrea Norrington has brought to the fore the work of Edwin Smith and an exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

For some Smith is almost unknown but I have been familiar with his work for over 30 years and  one of the first monographs I ever acquired was Photographs - 1935-1971  1984  Thames and Hudson a large hardback with 254 duotone plates and an introduction by Olive Cook.

His work attracted for a number of reasons back in the 1980s and that same attraction continues today, although my understanding of why has probably matured and elements of his style are to be hopefully found in my own work.

Born in London in 1912 he was educated in building trades and later as an architectural draughtsman, becoming a freelance photographer in 1935 in the same year he married Rosemary Ansell. This marriage lasted 2 years and he later married Olive Smith, a successful writer and photographic book producer. Smith was also a prolific artist working in water, oil and linocut/woodcuts.

Smith’s life, his love of painting, his ambivalence towards his own work is in many ways similar to that of Eugene Atget, a French photographer with who he felt a profound sympathy. Smith only conceded to describe himself as a professional photographer late in life preferring to speak of himself as an architect by training, a painter by inclination and a photographer by necessity. Endorsed by (the church loving) Sir John Betjeman as “a genius at photography”.

His main body of work was made in the 1950s and 1960s, photographing barns, churches, houses, streets, shop fronts, gardens and statues. This urban documentary style is without doubt after Atget, both in its style and technical excellence.

I don’t want to make this posting into a long biographical piece on Smith so while accepting there is much more that could be written on the circus photography, his meeting with the artist Paul Nash, World War 2 and his experimentation with colour photography. These and other personal issues can be developed in the future.

Where Smith (and to some extent Atget) influence my photography is the silence and stillness. Two concepts that on the surface are always inherent in a photograph as apposed to a video of movie film, so why do I see this as necessary. I adore peace and quite, love silence, stillness, I even dislike wind which has a noise. Olive Cook (Smith’s wife) describes in the introduction to Photographs - 1935-1971  how Smith would “Calmly, deliberately, discreetly  he would walk round  a church, a garden or a great house relating to the needs of the camera to his own visual responses and only starting work when he was certain of the possibilities of the material and the natural lighting” This description of him working  is exactly how I feel when looking at image making today. In the past I would rush around too much, grab a shot and move on too quickly often in the style of a press photographer (where I have had some experience) who has to grab whatever you can because the opportunity way vanish and nothing in the can. My return to working with film and a medium format camera and a hybrid film/digital workflow also slows down the making process and I find this preferable in so many instances to digital work.

Silence and stillness in imagery comes from two sources. The content and the photographer. Clearly a long exposure shot of a fairground ride whizzing around, bright lights, people clearly screaming, HDR technique and overt saturation is not going to convey silence and stillness at one extreme. I prefer no people or machines in my photography and that is my starting point for silence, preferring instead for lonely places where nothing moves. This does not have to be some wilderness location; in fact a lonely place can be in your own home.

The photographer must also be “silent”. I am not referring to how much noise they make although I don’t condone loud music at these times but that the presence of style should be silent.  A photographer has at his disposal a large set of techniques and tricks to enhance and process the image. I refer here to graduated filters, 10 stop filters, lensbaby etc. These should all be left alone. What I need is the very basic elements of straight photography, including perfect exposure, maximum tonal range, good viewpoint, corrected verticals and work that requires minimal post processing. The photograph should be a demonstration of good basic technique without the viewer thinking, wow this guy is good, I bet he has a good camera.

The viewer should not notice the photographer. Too much time can be spent asking questions on technique, wondering how he did that, does he use Lightroom or Photoshop, is this such and such paper etc etc.

I want my images to say something other than this is a photograph, am I any good? I want the viewer to be interested in what is signified, asking questions on its connotations, be concerned whether there is ambiguity rather than simple reason.

Smith made seemingly simple images and for me many of these resonate with these type of questions.

44th Eastern Open Exhibition - Radiation Tester

The 44th Eastern Open is the largest Open competition held in the town each year and sees an entry in excess of 700, with 70 or so being selected.

The Arts Centre (Formerly The Guildhall) has three large exhibition spaces and they are all used to show the work in what is a bright airy environment complete with pop up cafe.

I went along twice. The first time I was taken aback by the diversity of the selection. Oils, acrylics, photography etc and the contrasting styles, shapes and sizes. The variation was reflected in the prices ranging from £110 to £10,000. Not being an artist in the generally accepted sense I  know little of how major items in oils or pen and ink are made but one thing was certain: this was all good quality.On this first visit I had not taken a notebook so didnt get any thoughts written down but I had noticed the work of photographer Mike Harding. As you can only enter three pieces he had done very well in getting three hung and had also won best in show and the £2000 prize.

The second visit was to take a closer look at "Radiation Tester", Mike Hardings winning photograph and another called "Mr and Mrs Williams". I have since been in contact with Mike and he has kindly allowed me to include a copy of Radiation Tester" below.

"Radiation Tester" is a 30" x 40" colour print with a simple cream matte mount and a natural wood coloured frame. The catalog doesn't say but I guess its a C type print. The image shows a simple T shaped pole with cross head in a large wilderness of unkempt grassland. Hanging from the two extremities of the cross head are two "fly catcher" like papers dangling in space.
The landscape format image is conventional in many ways. The horizon is one third up from the bottom and the T shape is almost in the centre. There is uniformity and the space around the T is perfectly sized to give the correct sense of space and scale. Even if the viewer had no knowledge of the title there is enough here to bring upon a sense of unease. There is a bleakness that is directed by the reduced gamut. The grass is a pale green, the other vegetation is dead, there is no soil only stone and the sky is an ominous grey. The use of shallow depth of field renders the distance out of focus but there is nothing to see, no buildings or fences and certainly no people or signs of where they have been. The light is flat with the overcast sky and once we read that the simple looking device is for testing radiation a coldness is felt of hidden danger.

Radiation Tester

 Copyright - Mike Harding - Salhouse - Norfolk

Conclusion

At a mixed media exhibition it was encouraging that photography had made it to the top and that is encouraging. It is without doubt that my work is currently no right for showing to selectors at such a show. Again I come back to my lack of conceptual imaging and my constant involvement with technique over content. Further reading and research will hopefully overcome this trait and allow my work to have more narrative and be conceptually braver.