About the artist:

R.L.McCowan (Mac) is a veteran American commercial photographer and master printer of black and white pictures. His prints including the black and white Carbro prints are displayed in museums and galleries the world over. Mac started with a Sears home photo kit when he was a teenager. From there, he spent four years with the U.S. Air Force, the Art Center School in California, and ten years freelance in Europe: France, Germany, Sweden, England, and Spain. He has owned and operated a portrait studio, lab, and a commercial studio in the United States. He developed the modern Carbro process. With its huge tonal range and faithful reproduction of gradation in the negative, it gives prints a pigment that is permanent for hundreds of years. His company, Carbro Ltd. has processed black & white and color Carbro prints for museums and galleries home and abroad. Mac's Carbro murals are on permanent displayed at The Ellis Island Visitors Centre. In the Spring of 1991, Mac received an invitation to visit China and do a show and lecture. This is when he met Yu XiaoLi (pronounced you shaw lee) and they were married in December in St. Louis, Mo. In 1995 Mac formed China Pic in Shanghai, and XiaoLi, a professional photographer in her own right, joined him. They then provided the highest quality photographic services in China. During 8 years in Shanghai, they have worked for the major news agencies, advertising agencies and many joint venture companies in Asia. Around 200 clients list includes 3M, Johns Manville, United Airline, American Standard, Dow Corning, General Motors, World Bank, Nike, Adidas, BASF, Roche, Siemens, Leica, Ingersoll Rand, Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Dupont, Fluor Daniel, Ciba-geigy, Fortune Magazine, Time Magazine, Fleishman-Hillard, Hill & Knowlton, BBDO, DYR, Grand Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, U.S. Consul, British Consul and Canadian Consul. Permanent Collections: The Science Museum, London, England; Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO; University of Texas TX; Missouri State Museum, Jefferson City,MO; Hasselblad Forum, Goteborg Sweden; Victoria and Albert Museum, London,England; City of Venice, Italy; Polaroid Archives, Cambridge, MA; University of Thailand Museum, Bangkok,Thailand; A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., St. Louis, MO; Royal Academy of Fine Art, Copenhagen, Denmark; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.