Reuben R. Sallows was a commercial photographer specialising in agrarian and pastoral scenes.

Sallows was born and raised on a Huron County farm. He moved to Goderich in 1876, becoming a travelling salesman for local photographer Robert R. Thompson. Two years later, Sallows became Thompson's apprentice, and, in 1881, bought the business.

During the next decade, Sallows developed a reputation as a craftsman in formal portraiture, pastoral photography, and stereoscopic images. Besides building a substantial business, Sallows subscribed to the professional trade journals and was an active member in the Huron Photographers' and Canadian Photographers' Associations.

In 1897, Sallows successfully sold one of his pastoral photographs to several American newspapers. After the subsequent sale of further "pretty domestic scenes" to an American publisher, Sallows quickly specialised in commercial photography. Besides working for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, Grand Trunk Railway, and Department of Agriculture, Sallows specialised in "domestic scenes, pictures of rural life, views of nature in her wildest and loveliest moods, hunting, fishing, boating, camping and outdoor pastimes" (Busy Man's Magazine, May 1909).

Until World War I, Sallows travelled extensively on various assignments, turning his growing operations in Goderich over to his assistants. Besides promoting his own work, Sallows' store expanded into selling photographic supplies, processing the work of amateur photographers, and holding art classes.

By the late-1910s, Sallows began restricting himself to local jobs and to selling only a few images for publication each year. He died in 1937 at the age of 82.