Owen’s calotypes were exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. His images so impressed the Commissioners that, along with his French contemporary Claude-Marie Ferrier, he was asked to make 155 photographs of the exhibits. More than 140 bound sets of reports and accompanying photographs known as the "Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851: Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes into which the Exhibition was Divided" were presented to, among others, Queen Victoria, Heads of Foreign Governments, the Exhibition commissioners, and the British Museum. These remain Owen’s most famous photographs, and provide a good insight into how he approached his work. He tended to concentrate on individual objects in sharp focus, contrasted with shadowed backgrounds.