Photographer Shane Balkowitsch’s third book of Native portraits comes out in summer 2024.
Wet plate photography was the process photographers used for some of the great historical photographs of the mid-1800s, including the first images of the Sioux leader Sitting Bull. And it’s the process Shane Balkowitsch uses in his ongoing project to photograph 1,000 Native Americans of the 21st century from North Dakota and the surrounding region.
From each set of 250 portraits, he chooses 50 favorites to publish in a book. He has already published two volumes. The third in the series, Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective, Volume Three, comes out this July. It features Redsky Starr, Sacred Bear (Mandan, Arikara, Hidatsa, Yankton Sioux) on the cover.
Redsky Starr
Balkowitsch came up with the idea of doing the series after he had the chance to do a portrait of Sitting Bull’s great-grandson, Ernie LaPointe, in 2014. It was a seminal moment for Balkowitsch because one of his heroes of the craft was Bismarck-based photographer Orlando Scott Goff, a wet plate photographer who in 1881 captured the first image ever taken of Sitting Bull. LaPointe’s portrait became the first in the series (and the cover of the first book) as Balkowitsch realized there was still much to document about the Native peoples of the Plains.
And for that ambitious undertaking, wet plate photography seemed to Balkowitsch the ideal process.
[Top Left] Hannah Wreylin Roubideaux [Top Right] Denver Bryce Spotted Bear [Bottom Left] Tatianna Faith Write [Bottom Right] Shandin Hashkeh Pete.
Frederick Scott Archer invented the wet plate photography process, describing it in an 1851 article in the journal The Chemist. His method was a vast improvement over earlier processes of making photographs. Archer’s discovery was that he could use collodion containing bromide salts — a flammable, syrupy solution used then as a medical dressing for wounds — to prepare a glass plate as the surface on which to record an image.
In a darkroom, the photographer first poured collodion containing potassium iodide on the glass, then tilted the plate carefully to form an even coating. Then the photographer sensitized the plate by dipping it in a bath of silver nitrate. Using a device to shield the plate from light, the photographer then loaded it into the camera, exposed the plate while still moist — within five to 10 minutes, Balkowitsch says — then used other chemicals in a darkroom to develop and fix the image immediately afterward. While Balkowitsch substitutes a safer modern alternative for at least one chemical, he follows essentially the same process Archer pioneered.
Chante James Lambert
Why so devoted to a technology that was on the cutting edge more than 170 years ago? Balkowitsch cites advantages such as the longevity of the image. “It’s 100 percent silver, pure silver on glass,” he says. “Silver doesn’t degrade at all. It can be in full sun, it doesn’t matter. That’s why these images will outlast any other images ever made. The images will be here a thousand years from now.”
Another critical advantage is that the state-of-the-art technology of 1851 beats everything when it comes to detail, including digital. There’s nothing retro about the quality of the image. “I’m writing in molecules of silver,” Balkowitsch explains. “You can take any of these images to any university, put it under the most high-powered microscope, and you can’t get to the pixel and grain that makes up the image. You need an electronic microscope with 10,000x power to see the clumping of silver that makes up the image. So it’s also the most high-resolution photography that man has ever invented.”
Jeremy Lee Laducer
There are no shortcuts in making a wet plate photograph. That may be why, as of mid-May, Balkowitsch had made 793 plates of Native Americans in 11 years. But he doesn’t think of the process as time-consuming — quite the opposite.
“These aren’t snapshots,” he says. “These are 10-second movies — these are still-life movies. There’s actually 10 seconds of every one of these persons’ lives caught permanently in pure silver that will be here long after we’re gone. That’s why this is the most beautiful photographic process man’s ever invented.”
Ashlin Quill LaRocque
In the space it takes to make a wet plate image, the photographer captures something like a flicker of that person’s life. That may be why the Hidatsas held a ceremony and named Balkowitsch Maa’ishda tehxixi Agu’agshi — “Shadow Catcher.”
The name caught on among his Native American patrons, who come to his studio with whatever artifacts, heirlooms, regalia, and assorted props they choose to be photographed with. “They will come through that door and they will call me Shadow Catcher and give me a hug,” Balkowitsch says. And then they will sit very, very still so their shadow might be caught.
Gerald Anthony Jefferson
Read Shane Balkowitsch’s experience shooting at the studio of historic photographer Frank Fiske.
Shane Balkowitsch’s first book, 2019’s Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective, has sold out. Volume two is still available, and Balkowitsch is taking orders for volume three. The limited edition books are each signed by the author, and sales support the American Indian College Fund. Find out more, including how to order the two latest books at nostalgicglasswetplatestudio.com.
From our August/September 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Shane Balkowitsch
