Black and white film and hand printed silver gelatin prints have been John Fowler’s passion for decades. Inspired by early 20th Century pictorial photographers such as Leonard Missone and Robert Demachy, John has continually refined his technique to produce his hauntingly romantic pictoralist landscapes and muse-driven portraits.

Photography had piqued his interest as a teen, but he did not pick up a camera until after high school. He soon enrolled in a Greenville technical college where he mastered the fundamentals of photography and learned his way around the darkroom. From there, he began a journey to find a process that would materialize his creative vision.

When I’m out with my camera, it’s not just visual.

I want to feel it. 

I want my viewers to feel it.

John’s work is a labor of love. Although black-and-white photography is more expensive and takes much longer to produce than digital, that process, care and rarity are precisely what makes it special. 

“I like the hands-on process from beginning to end,” John says. “Shooting film is a different approach and mindset. You can’t say, ‘Oh I’ll just photoshop that out and change this and that.’ Film photography slows everything down, which many of us long for in a fast paced world.

For the photographer, the century-old method of gelatin silver print on warm toned fiber base paper also brings the delight of serendipity. “I never really know what I have until I develop the film. It’s always exciting to see the negatives on the light box and contact sheets.”

John’s career as a commercial photographer led to digital photography in 2004. A stark contrast with his creative endeavors, he nonetheless loves the control, convenience, and speed of turning work over to clients.

John is a native of South Carolina, where he and his wife raised their two grown children, and still live today.