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Jane Bown's Cats: Charming black & white photographs of our feline friends

Jane Bown is a legendary Observer photographer best-known for her portraits of icons from Beckett to Björk. But did you know she also has a love of cats and has photographs hundreds of them during her career? Now you can enjoy seeing her work in a new book, Jane Bown: Cats.

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Black and white photograph of a cat's face with alert eyes and whiskers, looking slightly to the side against a dark background

This is a charming collection of 100 black and white pictures of felines which reveals the same sympathetic eye and wit as her portraits.​​ She captures the cats sprawling, prowling, lolling, playing, feeding and lounging. House cats, alley cats, show cats and kittens trip and gambol across these pages making this the perfect photographic treat for cat-lovers.

Jane Bown began working at the Observer in 1949. Bown's great mantra was: "photographers should neither be seen nor heard". An ideal shoot was one where she exposed no more than a roll and a half of film, often in just 15 minutes. Once she cornered the notoriously camera-phobic Samuel Beckett in a dark alleyway down the side of the Royal Court theatre in London as he tried to escape her lens. With simmering hostility, he stood long enough for Jane to expose five frames – the middle one is one of her most recognisable portraits and the best portrait of the playwright. She was made an MBE in 1985, a CBE in 1995. She died in December 2014.

Robin Christian, the editor of the new book, is a curator, exhibition programmer and archivist currently working at the Guardian News & Media Archive and the Photography and the Archive Research Centre, a Research Centre of the University of the Arts London. He catalogued Bown's extensive archive collection and was a researcher on previous books, A Lifetime of Looking and Unknown Bown.

Make sure you grab a copy over at the wonderful Guardian Faber. Available to purchase now.

Via Creative Boom submission | All images courtesy of Guardian Faber

Fluffy long-haired cat perched on weathered wooden beam, looking directly at camera in black and white photograph
A tabby cat sits inside a vintage television set held by a person's hands, captured in black and white by Jane Bown
Black and white photograph of a fluffy cat's face looking directly at the camera with a slightly bemused expression, taken by Jane Bown
White long-haired cat with wide eyes staring directly at the camera in black and white photograph by Jane Bown
Cat's face peering through a gap in a knitted hood wrapped around dark fabric
Black cat with glowing eyes crouches on gritty ground beside a fish skeleton in black and white photography
Cat peering out from behind a BAR-B-Q sign in a window in a black and white photograph
Three cats sitting on a desk by a window in Jane Bown's black and white photograph, with plants and objects surrounding them indoors
Man in waistcoat and tie holding a black cat, photographed against a dark background in black and white
White cat stretching upwards at an open window in a brick wall, photographed in black and white
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