My late eldest sister, Kitty, was photographed by Jane Bown some time during the 1970s. She was a shop steward fighting for equal pay for sewing machinists. When my sister died two years ago, my daughter asked if she could have the photograph as she also lived in Alton. Not until I read that Jane Bown had died and looked at her work in the middle pages (22 December), did I realise why this photo was such a lovely image of my sister, and how lucky we are to have one of her photographs. I feel quite proud of her, as she was a typical lovely-looking Hoxton girl, who left school at 14 with no proper schooling because of the war. But she was a very feisty shop steward and I feel that Jane Bown could see this when she chose to photograph her.
Doris Barrett
London
• I met Jane Bown briefly in May 1982 at Wembley Stadium, where Pope John Paul II was to celebrate mass on his visit to Britain. I was the photographer for a Catholic magazine. The press photographers had been corralled in an area roughly in the centre of the football pitch, facing the platform where mass was to be celebrated. There were dozens, all with step-ladders and long lenses. While we were waiting I got talking to a diminutive lady who introduced herself as Jane Bown from the Observer. She had an SLR camera with a lens that looked as though it might have been 135mm at most. After weighing up the situation she said: “This is hopeless. I’m not staying here. Keep an eye on my bag, will you?” And off she went. Shortly after the Pope had arrived she returned, picked up her bag and said goodbye. Next morning the Observer carried on its front page a striking picture of the white-clad Pope, alone against a dark background, a hand raised to acknowledge the crowd. And underneath: Photograph: Jane Bown.
Fr Michael Henesy
Middlesbrough
• How very sad to hear the news of the death of Jane Bown. • One of my favourite photographs is her portrait of Anthony Blunt taken (I think) in 1964, 15 years before he was exposed as a Soviet spy. At the time of the photograph, Blunt was surveyor of the Queen’s pictures and there is a government or crown document on his desk. However, if you look at Jane’s portrait with the benefit of hindsight, there is something dark, tense and secretive about it, characteristics somewhat atypical in Jane’s work. Assuming that she had not been told, this one portrait sums up her profound psychological astuteness.
Martin Pick
London
