LIVE: World-Renowned Photographer Shane Balkowitsch in Fargo

Balkowitsch's striking wet-plate images are resonating out from Bismarck all over the world -- and now here to a show in Fargo.

FARGO — An internationally-renowned photographer famous for his wet-plate portraits is coming to Fargo this weekend to launch his new show in downtown.

You probably already know Shane Balkowitsch’s work — his famous 2019 portrait of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg was installed on a downtown mural in 2020.

Fargo activists brought it here after people in Bismarck threatened to vandalize it there.

It was promptly vandalized here, too, before being restored.

That’s not the only famous person Balkowitsch has photographed.

Published in his latest wet-plate portrait book is Balkowitsch’s portrait of Biden cabinet member Deb Haaland, the first Native American Secretary of the Interior of the United States.

But it was the portrait he took of Ernie LaPointe, the great-grandson of Sitting Bull, that launched him on his journey.

Balkowitsch’s goal now is to publish one thousand portraits of modern Native Americans, to document history as it happens here before us.

Balkowitsch took time out of his Friday morning portrait session at his Bismarck studio to sit down for a live Zoom with the Morning Show’s Emily Welker to talk about his show opening Saturday at the Spirit Room in downtown that highlights the native people of the Northern Plains, and their roles as modern people with a long ancestral legacy in our region.

All proceeds from print sales will go toward the American Indian College Fund.

For more information:

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