By: Bryce Steiner
All of you readers from Paulding County who have had kids in any of the school sports, probably know of, or at least heard of, Jim Bowers. He’s the photographer that has been shooting sports since the early to mid 1990’s of kids from Paulding County.
In an early morning 2019 fire Bowers lost his house, many pictures, and much more. Even with losing so much, the fire happened to give Jim new ideas and perspectives. In 2020 he decided to look into an old, yet new idea for photographs – hand developing prints that he had taken with his cameras. This would include his digital prints.
Jim’s photography story starts when he was 10 years old. Hi great-grandmother in Missouri gave him and his little brother a 110 Brownie camera. Jim thought that was just great and one of the best memories of his grandma. He would take as many pictures as he could afford to buy the film.
By the time Jim was in high school, living in the mountains of Colorado, he was taking pictures for his journalism class and high school newspaper with his new Pentax. His father, not satisfied with the economic conditions of Colorado, decided to move back to Paulding County in 1976, where he grew up, in Payne. By now Jim was out of high school and only making two dollars an hour for his job. He decided there wasn’t much to lose to come out this way. Jim married Kim in 1991 and has been living in Paulding ever since.
In Paulding County, Jim worked with radio communications, and still does today, but he got involved in photography with the Paulding Progress for the high school sports, and other feature articles, where he continues to shoot freelance. Seeing “Photo by Jim Bowers” in the newspaper is not uncommon Shooting with a Minolta 35mm film, he has moved to Nikon cameras after the newspaper asked their photographers to move into the digital era. Changing systems can be very costly for photographers with large collections of lenses.
Bowers is not unfamiliar with the dark room. After all, he shot on film for years and then after the games would go home and spend hours developing and making prints to be used in stories.
The new venture that has taken Jim is now making Platinum Prints right in his own home laboratory. it’s almost like taking a step back in time, yet the files are digital and still processed on the computer. The prints are simply magnificent in a monotone perspective. What makes this fine art so incredible is the life span. The developed pictures are expected to hold their detail for a 1000 years, and maybe even longer.
The process starts with a good picture, and Jim has many from all over the Continental USA! Jim and Kim both love to hike! The file is processed to a general high contrast look that allows for a dynamic reproduction. The next step is to make a negative, printed to an inkjet printer on a special transparency that embeds into the film rather than sits on the surface. The surface of the Hahnemhle Platinum Rag 100% cotton paper is prepared brushing on three chemicals Ferric Oxalate, Sodium Platinum, and Palladium, in precisely measured amounts. The Ferric Oxalate makes the Palladium light sensitive and the Sodium Platinum brings out the contrast in the image.
After the chemical mixture is spread out as much as possible across the paper, the sheet is dried and then ready to be placed into a frame with the negative between the glass and the paper with the emulsion side down against the paper. It is now time to expose the paper to UV light passing through the negative. Bowers has a custom built light box that will “bake” the image into the paper for four minutes using black lights. The image is subtle on the paper.
Once the exposure is finished the negative is set aside and the paper is then put in a Potassium Oxalate developer that instantly brings the print to life. The prints are quite unique as they are actually in the paper rather than sitting on the surface. Another chemical bath is then used to stop the developing and then the print is rinsed and dried on a flat surface.
The print is then signed, numbered and mounted and ready for sale. The limited number of prints make each one special on their own. When comparing side by side, the prints each have a different story.
The pictures have a limited number of prints being made – usually five. The prints, even though using the same negative, are all different. Each one has unique features, such as the borders, tint and even the mid-tone contrast due to the exposure, development, and even temperature of the chemicals and papers.
Premium Light Images is the company that Jim uses as his trademark name. He is just beginning to travel and show his gallery prints in different art shows around the area. 2020 has been challenging with the COVID epidemic, but 2021 is looking more promising to bring about the photo art exposé made right here in Paulding County. Events coming up include a March show in Toledo, and BLOOM FEST in Leo-Cedarville, IN on August 14.
Jim Bowers has a dedicated website for his fine art prints – similar to his sports pictures but not separate – https://premiumlightimages.com. Stop in and take a look at a real visual artist collection of work!
