John Bower's photography

Any image, in any of my books, can be ordered as a fine photograph. Not as a digital print, but as a gelatin-silver print. I enlarge and develop each photograph personally in my own darkroom. Each is mounted and matted, and ready for framing. The following provides some specifics.

My photographs are printed on 11" x 14" Ilford Multigrade RC paper. The prints are generally treated with a sulfide toner, which helps preserve them—and it produces a slight sepia coloration (a warm brownish tint), which I believe is in keeping with the subject matter. I use Ilford and Kodak chemistry.

Each print is mounted on cfc-free foamboard with an acid-free, low-temperature, heat-sensitive adhesive (making the prints removable). They are matted with acid-free, 100%-cotton-rag mat board (Crescent brand, color: Optical White #1684), which I sign in pencil. Finally, the mounted-and-matted prints are shrink-wrapped to protect them until they are framed.

The mat size (which is also the frame size) is 16" wide by 20" high for vertical prints, and 19" wide by 17" high for horizontal prints. Each mounted and matted photograph is priced at $175.00.

My camera of choice is a Mamiya 645 medium-format model. For photographing buildings, I often use a shift lens (also called a perspective-control lens) which can be adjusted to remove keystoning (distortion) caused by perspective. This camera produces negatives 60 mm x 45 mm—somewhat larger than a 35 mm camera's 35 mm x 24 mm negatives—so it yields sharper enlargements.

The majority of my black-and-white work is shot on Ilford FP-4+ film.

To take a tour of my darkroom, click here.

For more information about John, click here.