1 November 2025 – 15 February 2026 at the Newlands Gallery, Petworth

Jane Bown: Play Shadow offers an intimate portrait of one of Britain’s most revered photographers, Jane Bown (1925–2014), whose quietly powerful black-and-white portraits have become iconic within the canon of 20th century photography. 

Liza Minnelli

The new exhibition, at Newlands House Gallery, Petworth (from 1 November 2025 to 15 February 2026) expands beyond the familiar public image of Bown’s work as a photographer with The Observer newspaper, to reveal the deeply personal vision and consistent philosophy that guided her work: a belief in simplicity, natural light, and the decisive presence of a good face.

Mick Jagger

Play Shadow presents a selection of photographs, some rarely publicly displayed, across several thematic groupings, that explore Jane Bown’s approach to composition, light, and emotional presence. It includes archival material and personal reflections, offering insight into a photographer who saw technological restraint not as a limitation, but as a creative discipline.

Queen Elizabeth II

Bown’s mastery lay in her ability to work quickly, intuitively, and with minimal equipment, most famously, her Olympus OM-1 and just two lenses; either an 85mm for close-up portraits or a 55mm lens when she wanted context for the sitter. Her reliance on natural light, often soft and north-facing, created striking chiaroscuro effects that gave her portraits psychological depth and subtle drama. From her first commission, a profile shot of the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) to perhaps her most definitive portrait, that of the playwright Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) glaring like a caged eagle, Bown became a legendary figure, hailed for her dazzlingly beautiful images.

David Bailey

Play Shadow gestures both to the technical precision with which Bown used (mostly natural) light and to the emotional resonance and mystery she was able to draw out of her subjects, often within moments of meeting them. The famous Beckett image was just the third of five frames. Donald Trelford (1937-2023), Editor of The Observer (1975 – 1993), referred to Jane as a “white witch” for her uncanny ability to repeatedly capture psychologically insightful portraits, while her contemporary, Lord Snowdon (1930-2017) famously described her as “a kind of English [Henri] Cartier-Bresson.”

David Hockney

Although she became widely recognised for photographing cultural icons – ranging from Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) to Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022), the Beatles to Sinead O’Connor (1966-2023) – Bown was uninterested in celebrity. In 2003, commissioned to shoot the pop star Jarvis Cocker (b.1963), Jane rang a colleague to ask who he was. In this regard, her lack of preconceptions and ignorance of celebrity imbued her work with an extraordinary humanity. Her photographs stripped away artifice, offering instead an honest, often vulnerable glimpse into the human behind the persona. Her 1968 photograph of Anthony Blunt (1907-1983), taken 11 years before the public revelation of his dual life as a Soviet spy, was eerily prescient, with light and shadow working not just as aesthetic choices but as metaphors for truth and concealment.

Margaret Thatcher

Bown also photographed some of the most influential artists of the 20th century, including Henry Moore (1898-1986), Paula Rego (1935-2022), David Hockney (b.1937), and Francis Bacon (1909-1992). The exhibition features not only Bown’s portraits of such figures, but also selected works by the artists themselves, creating a dynamic conversation between sitter and maker, photograph and artwork.

Bjork

Jane Bown: Play Shadow also celebrates Jane’s lasting connection to the region and to future generations of image-makers. An alumna of the Guildford School of Art – which offered the UK’s only full-time photography course at the time, directed by Ifor Thomas- now part of the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), the exhibition includes Show Me to You, part of Fast Forward: Womxn in Photography, which celebrates the continuing legacy of Jane Bown, a UCA’s distinguished graduates. Known for her intimate and honest portraits, Bown’s influence resonates in the work of UCA alumni and staff: Anna Fox, Sunil Gupta, Karen Knorr, Eileen Perrier, Charan Singh, Corinne Whitehouse and Priyanka Pattni whose portraits carry forward her humanistic vision while reimagining it for contemporary identities, representation, and social change. Moreover, current UCA photography students are invited to respond to her work with selected contemporary pieces and interventions, reflecting Bown’s lasting influence.

“In an age dominated by fast-evolving technology and visual noise, Jane Bown: Play Shadow invites viewers to slow down and rediscover the power of simplicity: the quiet alchemy between face and light, shadow, and storytelling,” says the show’s curator and Director of Newlands House Gallery, Dr Loucia Manopoulou.

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