Photographer and assemblage artist Harry Bowers was born on April 22, 1938, in Los Angeles, CA. Before he pursued art, Bowers studied engineering physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.A., 1965). and received a BS in Engineering Physics from the University of California, Berkeley (1964) before turning to photography and completing an MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute (1974). He worked as an instructor at the San Francisco Art Institute and other universities in California before leaving the field in the early 1980s. Bowers went on to found a number of successful companies that were early forerunners in digital printing technology and color calibration and for which he held four patents. He lost most of his negatives in 1990, but he rediscovered many of them in 2004 and returned to making art.

In addition to his fine arts career, Bowers taught and lectured throughout the U.S., including at the Universities of California at Berkeley and Santa Cruz; the California College of Arts and Crafts (now the California College of the Arts), Oakland, CA; the San Francisco Art Institute, SF, CA; Univeristy of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; School of Visual Arts, NY; among others. 

Harry Bowers died on April 15, 2024, in Staatsburg, New York.

Honors
Favorite Photographer award, Portfolio review Les Recontres D'Arles, Arles, France, 2008; Ruttenberg Foundation Arts Grant, 1984: Macintosh Grant, Apple Computers, 1984; National Endowment for the Arts' Photographer's Fellowship, 1978 and 1980; New Discovery, Time-Life Photography Year Book, inclusion of nione photographic prints, 1978; National Science Foundation Fellowship, 1965.

One-Person Exhibitions
1985: Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1984: Museum of Photographic Art, San Diego, CA
1983: Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, TX
1982: Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Priebe Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI; The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1981: The Photographer's Gallery, London, England
1980: Morgan Gallery, Shawnee Mission, KS; G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, MA; Hansen Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1979: Smith Andersen Gallery, Palo Alto, CA;  University of Montana, Missoula, MT
1978: Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA; Hansen Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1976: Hansen Fuller Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1973: Extension Gallery, University of California, San Francisco, CA.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009: 30th Anniversary Exhibition, Part 1, Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA; "CHOUCHOU" 2008 Les Rencontres D'Arles, Farmani Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
2008:  New Directions, Photo Folio review Arles, The Grande Halle, Les Rencontres D'Arles Photographie, Arles, France.
1994: Forecast: Shifts in Direction, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM
1991: de-persona, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
1989: Media Talk, Security Pacific Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA
1988: Metaphors: The image of clothing in contemporary art, Huntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AL
1987: Photography and Art: Interactions since 1946, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA, touring exhibition
1986: American Photography - A Selection, Welton Becket Associates; Los Angeles; Photography: A facet of modernism, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco, CA; Photography from the Museum Collection-Harry Bowers, John Divola, Palm Springs Desert Museum of Art, Palm Springs, CA, with lecture by Harry Bowers
1985: Extending the Perimeters of 20th Century Photography, SFMOMA; Light and Heavylight: Contemporary Shadow Use in the Visual Arts, Memorial Union Art Gallery, University of California Davis, CA; Harry Bowers, Ten Photographs, Fuller-Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco
1985: Photographer's Portfolios, G.Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Signs of the Times: Some recurring motifs in 20th century photography, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Anxious Interiors, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach,
CA, touring exhibition
1984: Sexuality in Art and the Media, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, IL; Landscapes/Figures/Objects: Implied performance, California State University, Northridge, California; Arranged Image Photography, San Francisco Camerawork and Boise Gallery of Art, Boise ID
1983: Facets of the Collection: The medium is photography, SFMOMA
1982: Alternative Directions, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Color as Form: A history of color photography, International Museum
of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY; California Color, The Photographer's Gallery, London, England
1981-'83: Object/Illusion/Reality, California State University, Fullerton, CA (This exhibit traveled worldwide under the auspices USICA, Washington D.C.,
until February 1983)
1981: Mather Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
1980: Beyond Color, SFMOMA
1979: Allan Frumkin Gallery, Chicago, Illinois; Eyes and Ears Foundation, San Francisco, California, feat. 10 X 20 ft. billboard; Dangling Dualities, Linda Farris Gallery, Seattle, WA
1978: San Francisco Associates/Five Photographers, Optica Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Some Twenty Odd
Visions, The Blue Sky Gallery; Portland, OR, touring exhibition
1977: Photography with Painting, Silver Image Gallery, Seattle, WA; Bay Area Innovators, Sacred Heart Gallery, Menlo Park, CA; Bent Photography, California, USA; Australian Center for Photography, Paddington, Australia (touring exhibition; curator / participant)
1976: Invitational, University of Nevada, Reno, NV; Friends of Photography, Carmel, CA
1975: Edinburgh Summer Art Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland; Ohio Silver Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1974: San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA