Bowens International was founded as Bowens Camera Service Company, a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

based

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

repair company, in 1923 which by the 1950s had grown to be one of the largest in

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. In 1963, the name ''Bowens International LTD.'' was registered. In June 2016 a German investment firm AURELIUS, bought Bowens and the following year in July 2017, AURELIUS closed down the company, discontinuing all further operations.

Company history

Bowens manufactured lighting equipment for

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

s. The first

flash bulb A flash is a device used in photography that produces a brief burst of light (typically lasting 1/1000 to 1/200 of a second) at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a ...

units were produced in 1947 and in 1950 the company started to produce its first

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

studio

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

systems. Until the 1960s, studio flash systems were large and cumbersome, requiring bulky power

generator Generator may refer to: * Signal generator, electronic devices that generate repeating or non-repeating electronic signals * Electric generator, a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. * Generator (circuit theory), an eleme ...

s to power the flash heads, connected by large cables. In 1963, Bowens invented the first electronic studio flash unit with its power source built into it. This became known as a monobloc (sometimes Monolite) which is now an industry standard tool. Following this invention the company dedicated itself to the design and production of studio flash equipment, Bowens Sales & Service grew out of the Bowens Camera service company and in 1966 they made their first appearance at

photokina Photokina (rendered in the promoters' branding as "photokina") is a trade fair held in Europe for the photographic and imaging industries. It is the world's largest such trade fair. The first Photokina was held in Cologne, Germany, in 1950, a ...

showing their products to the worldwide photography community and taking their first steps towards global distribution. In 1968 they produced an update to the Monobloc, The Monolite 400 and later products such as Quad, Prolite and Esprit have also proved popular amongst photographic professionals. The company produced studio flash systems and photographic accessories, designed in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

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and manufactured at its

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

from 2010. The main

competitor Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

s of Bowens International included Broncolor,

Profoto Profoto is a Swedish company that develops photographic flashes and other light shaping tools for professional photographers. It was founded in 1968 by Conny Dufgran and Eckhard Heine in Stockholm. History Profoto AB was founded in Stockho ...

, Elinchrom, Multiblitz, Visatec and White Lightning. The company was acquired together with

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in June 2016 by the German based venture capitalists

Aurelius The gens Aurelia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, which flourished from the third century BC to the latest period of the Empire. The first of the Aurelian gens to obtain the consulship was Gaius Aurelius Cotta in 252 BC. From then to ...

in June 2016 and then entered liquidation in July 2017 citing competitive pressures. RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed liquidators of the company on 16 August 2017. 26 staff lost their job in the UK and the factory in China was closed.

Products

Bowens offered many products, ranging from their compact flash units, to their softboxes and accessories. The Bowens S fitting remains a widely used standard for attaching modifiers to flash heads.

Litebook

In July 2008 Bowens published the first issue of ''litebook'',First issue of litebook magazine
/ref> a quarterly magazine devoted to profiling photographers and photographic studios working with Bowens lighting products.

Bowens TV

Bowens YouTube channel showed the latest news regarding the company and its products. A series of five-minute tutorials called "Hough To" (A pun on the surname of the presenter Christian Hough) show a variety of creative lighting techniques using Bowens products. A series of short videos entitled "Behind the Picture" (the company's strapline) follow photographers as they set up and work on shots.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.bowensdirect.com/ Manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom Photography companies of the United Kingdom Electronics companies established in 1923 Photography in the United Kingdom Photographic lighting Camera maintenance