Following in the footsteps of Edward S. Curtis and Orlando Scott Goff, North Dakotan Shane Balkowitsch pays homage to his home state and Native American heritage and culture. As a self-taught 'image-maker', and one of the fewer than 1,000 wet plate collodion artists practicing around the world, Balkowitsch has fully devoted himself to mastering the obsolete photographic technology since 2012. The practice dates back to 19th century Victorian origins and involves preparing a glass plate with collodion and silver nitrate solution for an extended exposure in the camera. In his natural light studio, a roper exposure takes around 10 seconds, about 600 times longer than an iPhone camera. The resulting ambrotypes attest to the unparallelled beauty of this archaic photographic form at the intersection of art and science. This fantastic image archive includes such characterful faces as Blue Bead Woman, White Shawl Eagle Woman, Dancing Red Horse, Scatter Corn, Medicine Horse and Charlie James Daniel 'Eagle Shield'. For each there is the name of their tribe and the date the photograph was taken at the studio. 'Wolf Eyes Looking' features a very dignified elderly gentleman with an actual dead wolf's face over his own, wearing full furs and bone and beaded jewellery; in another image the proud pockmarked face of a middle-aged warrior with bandana and a scarred face of a soldier boy and beautiful young squaws with perfect skin. The traditional costumes are truly astonishing and here in monochrome have a most powerful impact in these close-up photographs. There is one gatefold page of the Nostalgic Glass Natural Light Studio with the photographer seen on the left. 128 large pages, 25 x 32.6cm.
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