Bown was born in
Eastnor, Herefordshire on 13 March 1925. She described her childhood as happy, brought up in
Dorset by women whom she believed to be her aunts. Bown said she was upset to realise, at the age of twelve, that one of them was her mother and her birth was illegitimate. This discovery precipitated her into delinquent behaviour in her adolescence, and acting coldly towards her mother. She first worked as a chart corrector with the
WRNS, which included a role in plotting the
D-Day invasion, and this employment entitled her to an education grant. Bown began her career as a wedding portrait photographer until 1951, when Thomas put her in touch with Mechthild Nawiasky, a picture editor at
The Observer. Nawiasky showed her portfolio to editor
David Astor who was impressed and immediately commissioned her to photograph the philosopher
Bertrand Russell. Bown worked primarily in
black-and-white and preferred to use available light. Until the early 1960s, she worked primarily with a
Rolleiflex camera. Subsequently, Bown used a 35 mm
Pentax SLR, before settling on the
Olympus OM-1 camera, often using an 85 mm lens. Bown's extensive photojournalism output includes series on Hop Pickers, evictions of
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp,
Butlin's holiday resort, the British Seaside, and in 2002, the
Glastonbury festival. Her social documentary and photojournalism was mostly unseen before the release of her book
Unknown Bown 1947–1967 (2007). In 2007, her work from
Greenham Common was selected by
Val Williams and
Susan Bright as part of
How We Are: Photographing Britain, the first major survey of photography to be held at Tate Britain. A documentary about Bown,
Looking For Light (2014), directed by Luke Dodd and Michael Whyte, features Bown conversing about her life and interviews those she photographed and worked with, including
Edna O'Brien,
Lynn Barber and
Richard Ashcroft. In June 2014, Bown was awarded an honorary degree from the
University for the Creative Arts. ==Private life==