June 10, 2023 through July 06, 2023
Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective
Vincent NightHorse Fox 10-28-2022
“Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective”
by Shane Balkowitsch at Nostalgic Glass Wet Plate Studio, Bismarck, ND
We conducted an artist talk with Shane on Wednesday June 21st,
please enjoy a recording of our most informative and interesting conversation.
The link is shared here.
Shane Balkowitsch artist talk.
We are extremely honored to present this work by Shane Balkowitsch. Please join us for the opening on Saturday, June 10th from 4 – 7pm, we look forward to sharing the fabulous work with you. Shane is not able to attend.
An important and heartfelt documentation, we have noticed and admired this work for years and now have the honor of exhibiting twenty fine reproductions of the originals and one original Collodion Wet Plate. The prints are beautiful custom carbon pigment prints crafted in the Netherlands by master printer Luc Brefeld.
“Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective” is by far my most important work. My life’s work. My goal is to capture 1000 Native Americans over the 20 years. I have met so many fabulous people on this journey and I am forming bonds and friendships that will last me throughout my life. It is important for me to not only document their heritage but to give respect to a people that that have been mistreated in so many ways. I consider this an honor and I will do everything that I can to put my friends in the best possible light.
Shane Balkowitsch, Ambrotypist
Nostalgic Glass Wet Plate Studio, Bismarck, ND
Website
Shane Balkowitsch has been a practitioner of Frederick Scott Archer’s 1851 Wet Plate Photography process for over a decade.
Shane’s life’s work is titled “Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective”. Using the wet plate process, this project is a journey to capture 1000 present day Native Americans on glass plates at his Bismarck, North Dakota, studio.
Among the 64 international collections that have archived his work are the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum and the Royal Photographic Society of the United Kingdom.
Shane does not own, nor has ever used, a digital camera.