Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shane Balkowitsch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Shane, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I saw a wet plate online back in September of 2012 and decided to pursue the process, I had never owned a camera at that point and I had no interest in photography. There are less than 1000 wet plate artists in the world practicing this historic process from 1851, I am completely self taught and learned by trial and error. As of today I have made 4911 plates since Oct. 4th, 2012.
Shane, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I just fell down the rabbit hole and started to chase this very archaic and forgotten photographic process. I am an ambrotypist so I make silver on black glass images, the images will last 1000 year unbroken and are the most high resolution images man has ever created. I have original plates at 76 museums including the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress and the Pitt Rivers Museum at the Unversity of Oxford to name a few. My life’s work is “Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective” which is a 15 year journey to capture 1000 Native American portraits in the historic process. The series will be spread over 4 volumes of books and Volume 3 is with the designer as I type this.
There is a documentary on Amazon simply called “Balkowitsch” that shows my story.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
After I photographed Greta Thunberg the Swedish Environmentalist my work installed downtown Bismarck and in Fargo were egged. I also received a death threat. I received similar reactions when I stood with my Native friends during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. My camera was the only camera allowed in camp at the time, based off the trust I had garnered over the years with their community.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I recently retired from my day job being the founder and CEO of Balkowitsch Enterprises, Inc., after 25 years, I am now focusing full time on family, friends and my wet plate work, it is a huge dream at 54 years of age to make this transition to something more important than profit and loss statements. I started the company with $50 in my mom’s basement in 1998.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://sharoncol.balkowitsch.com/wetplate.htm
- Instagram: balkowitsch
- Facebook: balkowitsch
- Twitter: balkowitsch
- Youtube: balkowitsch
- Other: http://sharoncol.balkowitsch.com/northernplains.htm
Image Credits
Shane Balkowitsch Portrait by Joseph W. Brown Studio Portraits Interior and Exterior by Tom Wirtz I HAVE PERMISSION FROM BOTH ARTISTS TO USE THESE IMAGES.