Flash forward | Photography studio Howell Ltd. eyes a niche in art preservation from a new home in Westbrook
Photo/Tim Greenway
Commercial photographer Paul Howell has developed new image technology at his studio in Westbrook
Diagram Courtesy/Howell MSI
Paul Howell makes his living off of light — manipulating it, capturing it, studying it. As owner of Howell Ltd., an established commercial photography studio that recently uprooted from Portland to Westbrook, he uses flash equipment to illuminate bed linens, designer dresses and other products to catch catalog readers’ eyes. As an amateur astronomer verging on a Ph.D. in astrophysics, he uses high-powered telescopes, both at renowned observatories and in his very own backyard, to glean feeble starlight from the night sky. And as the chief scientist at Howell MSI, a new business offshoot, he’s harnessing the light’s spectrum for a new photographic technology that could change the way we see some of our most treasured works of art.
In his meat-and-potatoes commercial photography business, founded with his wife, Colette, in 1991, companies including Cuddledown, Talbot’s and Angela Adams make up the client list. After eight years in a condominium building on Portland’s Middle Street, the company moved to Westbrook two months ago, lured by attractive property rates. “We don’t depend on walk-ins, yet we were paying for that” in Portland, he says. “The total expenses here are less than the condo fee was there.” The new location also features easy access to the highway and more contiguous space, a key feature for a photography studio, Howell says. “That makes a big difference for what we do. It shoots bigger.”
A steady volume of catalog work keeps Howell’s five employees busy, punctuated by occasional visits from New York fashion models who drop by the 10,000-square-foot studio for shoots. But even then, it’s all about the product, not the person wearing it or, more importantly, the person shooting it, Howell says. “If you look at a picture and say, ‘A photographer was there,’ we’re not doing our job.”
A soft-spoken man with a flop of gray hair, Howell, a former Fairchild Semiconductor executive, explains the strengths of his business — out-of-state clients that bring money into Maine, finely tuned customer service — with an easy confidence. But a subtle spark lights up his demeanor when he talks about Howell MSI, his latest venture. Gazing at the stars has taught Howell plenty about the properties of light, particularly how to squeeze every last photon out of the dim rays visible from Earth. Now he’s figured out a way to use those same wavelengths to examine paintings, Grecian urns and any number of artifacts, dissecting them layer by ancient layer for inspection and virtual preservation. Called multispectral imaging, the technology is to ordinary photography what an X-ray is to an MRI, Howell explains. “We can create a digital archive of a precious cultural artifact,” he says.
A new focus
In a narrow space along a wall in his photography studio, Howell operates a 4-foot tall scientific camera from a nearby computer. A saucer-sized circle of light appears on a white surface below the camera’s lens, first in deep shades of purples and blues, then greens, yellows and finally the reds that bookend the spectrum of light visible to the human eye. By scanning artifacts with this same progression of wavelengths, as well as non-visible ultraviolet and infrared light, Howell says he can help give art researchers, museum curators and others a new way to understand and preserve paintings, sculptures and countless types of artwork. Infrared light, for example, can penetrate some materials, allowing a glimpse at the original canvas under an oil painting, for example. “You can see the charcoal sketch beneath the painting,” Howell says.
Multispectral imaging isn’t new; it was developed in the 1990s to examine parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls where the ink had faded and was no longer visible to the naked eye. An engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory devised multispectral imaging as a way to read the ancient texts by adapting technology already used by satellites. (Howell also has another tie to NASA — in 2006 he was part of an international team of amateur and professional astronomers who discovered XO-1b, a previously unknown planet the size of Jupiter).
Howell says his technology, which he’s attempting to patent, causes no degradation, a major selling point over existing processes. One of the technology’s most useful applications is in determining the provenance of an artifact, he explains. Say a newly unearthed painting appears to be the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Using multispectral imaging, researchers can isolate the individual paint colors and brush strokes of the work, and then compare them to a known da Vinci to determine whether the colors date to the 16th century and if the strokes match up with the Renaissance genius’s distinctive right-to-left style.
Meanwhile, the original suffers no damage, Howell says, as he absentmindedly scratches the insistent nose of his golden retriever, who freely roams the studio. A painting removed from an art gallery wall is exposed to less energy while undergoing an hour of multispectral imaging scans than it is hanging under the display lamp, Howell says. And after it’s digitally archived, the painting can be viewed from anywhere. If someone wanted to study a certain Winslow Homer masterpiece, they wouldn’t have to come to the Portland Museum of Art to view it in person. “It’s a way to make pieces of art available to a wide audience,” Howell says.
But the application of the technology closest to Howell’s heart involves, naturally, photography. A fan of the famed nature photographer Ansel Adams, Howell explains that if he could just get his hands on an original glass negative of Adams’ famous shot of a moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico, he could compare it to a corresponding print to map out exactly where Adams dodged and burned to manipulate the exposure during the printing process. “It’s as if I could go back and watch Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa,” Howell says. The modern equivalent would be standing over a photographer’s shoulder as he tinkers with a digital image in Adobe Photoshop.
Perhaps that day will come, but for now Howell is using the technology to test lantern slides, which were popular during the mid-1800s for displaying photos to large groups. Both Bowdoin College and the University of New England have boxes of the fragile slides that they’ve asked Howell to help preserve digitally. But they’re not the only ones to come calling — both the Smithsonian and the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles have expressed interest in Howell’s technology, with the latter extending an invitation for a research trip to Egypt, he says.
Part of a whole
Howell’s new technology has attracted several hundred thousand dollars in startup funds from a number of local investors, as well as won a $12,500 seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute. “This proposal and this technology shows some promise in the industry, it’s innovative and unique,” says Shane Beckim, seed grant specialist for MTI. “It’s in a niche market that we think could lead to some jobs and economic development in Maine.”
Howell hopes the new venture will one day represent a large fraction of his revenue stream, but commercial photography still makes up the bulk of his business. Embracing new technology has had its place there, as well, as the studio was among the first in New England to incorporate digital photography, he says. It was a necessary move, but the artist in him still longs for more traditional techniques. “If I could snap my fingers, we’d still be shooting film,” he says, standing in front of a metal rack storing rolled-up rugs and candlesticks for a shoot. “I prefer film.”
Howell Ltd.’s business model, on the other hand, has stood the test of time, with its focus on high-volume work and on-time delivery, he says. The company’s proprietary “project tracker” tool allows clients to follow their orders step by step online, from the time Howell receives a product sample to the day the images are complete. “The term we hear a lot is,’You guys are really buttoned up,’” he says. In an echo of his years as an executive at Fairchild Semiconductor, Howell shares the business philosophy that has served him well over the last two decades. “I’m a firm believer in core competencies,” he says. “Do what you do.”
Howell Ltd.
821 Main St., Westbrook
Founded: 1991
Founders: Paul and Colette Howell
Employees: 5
Services: Commercial digital photography
Annual revenue: Over $1 million
Contact: 591-5770, ext. 10
www.howell-ltd.com
Jackie Farwell, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at jfarwell@mainebiz.biz.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments