Photography

Nine: Jane Bown

U2 1Seeing the lovely documentary on Jane – Looking for Light – I was reminded of working with her. I was at the Observer Magazine and we were planning to do a piece on U2. To their credit, they asked if Jane could go to Dublin and photograph them. We were only too happy to send her, armed with her usual equipment: a camera in an old shopping bag. I had worked with Jane a fair bit at that time and I think I was the first person to ask her to try shooting in colour, for a series on estimable women in The Listener (in the interests of full disclosure it wasn’t my idea, but Russell Twisk’s, my editor). Anyway, when Jane returned to the Obs office, she gave us a choice of shots. I much preferred the individual portraits – taken in the pub at the end of the shoot – to the rather flat “Group on the Dock” ones. Jane, however, didn’t, and it took some time to be forgiven…

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