Acclaimed Leica authority Brian Bower has died at the age of 91. He was a prolific author and teacher of photography, and served for two years as president of the Royal Photographic Society. Professionally, he was an accountant and long-serving director of William Kenyon & Sons, a Manchester-based rope and fabric manufacturer.
Brian, who lived in Cheshire, will be remembered as an authority on Leica cameras and as the author of several highly regarded books on Leica photography. These included Leica M Digital Photography, Leica Reflex Photography, Leica M Photography, The Leica Lens Book, and Lens, Light and Landscape. All his books were noted for the quality of the images and the precise, concise and highly informative prose.
Leica Pocket Book
He worked with another noted Leica authority, Nobby Clark, in revising the 8th edition of the popular Leica Pocket Book. Brian’s skills also extended to teaching. He ran courses on Leica photography, many of which took place at the Leica School when it was based in Milton Keynes, UK.
Brian was a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society and served as RPS President between 1988 and 1990. His main photographic interests were landscape, travel and aviation, but he enjoyed many other subjects to test his Leica skills. Exhibitions of his work have been shown at the Leica Gallery in Germany, at the RPS Octagon Gallery in Bath as well as nearer to his home in Cheshire, including one at Manchester Airport.
Collaboration with Leica
Many of his pictures have appeared in travel brochures, books, and calendars. Indeed, in 1995 he was commissioned to shoot the Kodak UK Calendar, a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Kodachrome film. The same images were used in the Kodak Japan calendar.
In 1994 Brian collaborated with Leica Camera in producing a Leica M6 Royal Photographic Society limited edition. One hundred cameras were produced, with serial number 001 being presented to HM Queen Elizabeth II.
Our thanks to Nobby Clark for additional information used in this article.
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Never had the opportunity or pleasure of meeting Brian. Both his books Leica Reflex Photography and Leica M Photography have been of great use over the years.
RIP Brian.
Sad news; Brian will be missed by all who had the pleasure of meeting him; he was a very polite and helpful gentleman. I’ve vivid recollections of Brian’s presentation at The Leica Society 2013 AGM at Corsham when he and Nobby Clark gave us some insight into how they revised The Leica Pocket Book to produce the 2012 8th Edition – a mammoth task requiring dedication and patience to correct previous editions’ errors, anomalies. and omissions. R.I.P. Brian and thank you for all your books – a lasting legacy to benefit Leica enthusiasts worldwide.
I first met Brian at our second TLS meeting in Corsham in 2016. We stood beside his car and discussed various things. He came across as a true gentleman who liked sharing his knowledge of all things relating to Leica.
May he rest in peace.
William
Now this is sad. When I bought my first digital M camera, his was the book I read and reread. I learned So much from him…
I still have his books.