Shane Balkowitsch (/ˈbɔːlkəwɪtʃ/ BAWL-kə-witch;[1] born January 24, 1969) is an American wet plate photographer from Bismarck, North Dakota.

[9] In 2012, Balkowitsch began researching the process of wet plate photography after reading a manual on the subject by tintype photographer John Coffer.

[40] The final glass plate, titled, "Murderer's Gulch" is being curated by the Historical Society of North Dakota in their permanent archive.

[41][42] The protest included many people Balkowitsch met during work on a photography project for the Historical Society of North Dakota, Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective.

[48][49] The 2018 documentary film Peacekeeper also includes and credits wet plate images taken by Balkowitch during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

[50] In 2019 Balkowitschs' work No Spiritual Surrender was awarded Best Photograph by the North Dakota Human Rights Art Festival.

The exhibit was created, directed, and photographed by Balkowitsch and dedicated to the memory of Hande Kader, a Turkish transgender woman whose body was found raped, mutilated, and burned by the roadside in the Zekeriyaköy up-market on August 12, 2016.

[58][59][60] On November 3, 2017, the Bismarck Art Galleries Association hosted the reception of Balkowitsch’s photograph series, "Northern Plains Native Americans: A Modern Wet Plate Perspective.

"[61][62] In 2019 Balkowitsch published "Northern Plains Native Americans: A Wet Plate Perspective," the first volume of a multi-volume set that includes photographs from this series.

On June 23, 2019 U.S. Rep. Debra Haaland, one of the first Native American women elected to the U.S. Congress, appeared as guest speaker at the photographer's book signing event in Bismarck.

[16] According to Balkowitch, Nostalgic Glass is the first natural light wet plate studio built from the ground up in North America in over 100 years.

[70][71][72] Liberty Trudges Through Injustice, is a wet plate image created by Balkowitsch resulting from a collaboration event that took place in Bismarck, North Dakota on July 21, 2018.

[82][83][84] In February 2020 a seven-foot mural of the work Standing For Us All by Balkowitsch was going to be displayed on the side of a bakery business in Bismarck, North Dakota.