FARGO — Watching Kary Janousek take a photograph is like stepping back in time. She photographs her subjects (often in vintage clothing) while wearing a Victorian dress herself. From beneath the camera’s curtain, she orders the subject to hold still — for upwards of 12 seconds.
“Exposure times are generally 4-12 seconds in my studio,” said Janousek, who is a wet plate collodion artist based in Fargo.
This summer, Janousek set out to share her analog art with communities throughout North Dakota with the traveling exhibition, “Silver Linings Tintype Tour.” The tour runs through September, held in various locations and historic places like Medora and Fort Abercrombie, featuring photographic displays and live demonstrations.
Kary Janousek / Contributed
Old-school sensibility, modern mentality
The wet plate collodion process dates back to the 1850s, a process involving treating film and developing it in about 15 minutes, which means photos taken in the field require a portable darkroom.
If analog photography is an aesthetic, then Janousek expresses her take on it in dramatic, feminine and very human ways. She is the only wet plate photographer in the Fargo-Moorhead area and one of four others in North Dakota.
Trained as a milliner specializing in vintage hats, Jaousek opened an online vintage and antique hat shop in 2012 where she restored and repaired hats from the 1960s to the 1970s. The hat business was her primary occupation until 2020 when she discovered her appreciation for tintype photography and the wet plate process.
Kary Janousek / Contributed
“I’ve always loved history and fashion,” she said. “I like feminine, conceptual portraiture that’s rooted in a respect for the past and the emotional journey of the human experience. I also appreciate how fashion from the 1930s to the 1950s really flattered and respected the female form.”
Janousek is prolific and frequently shares her photos on her social media accounts where she details more about her subjects and process.
“I like to start projects that require collaboration and planning, that have a purpose or theme, and that push me past my comfort zone,” she said.
Wet plate photos often come out monochromatic. Not quite black and white, not quite sepia, but something in between. Because they are handmade, Janousek said seeing little scratches and dust fibers on final images is normal and a part of what makes the process so interesting.
“It all adds to an interesting ambiance,” Janousek said during an
interview with South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
“It translates color differently since it only sees the UV spectrum.”
Kary Janousek / Contributed
For example, blue turns white, and red and yellow turn black. The result is that different tones and textures come out that modern digital cameras don’t usually capture, or at least, not intentionally. Janousek said the result is that people’s unique features, like high cheekbones and freckles, tend to stand out more.
The process of shooting, developing and producing one image is a lesson in chemistry. Janousek said her process is “slow and deliberate,” and it begins with coating a metal or glass plate with premixed chemicals, then dropping the plate into a silver nitrate bath to make it more reactive to light.
Once the plate is ready, Janousek places it in a light-protecting plate holder by the large-format bellows camera with a sheet to cover the photographer. Then she poses her subject, refines the focus, loads the holder containing the plate inside the camera, replaces the lens cap, pulls the dark slide, removes the lens cap.
And then she takes the picture.
Kary Janousek / Contributed
A few other steps are involved at this point, but eventually she gets to the chemistry part.
“Once I see the highlights appear, I stop exposure in water and rinse. The plate is then placed in a fixing solution and the image turns from a negative to a positive,” Janousek said. “This last magical step of transformation can be done outside of the darkroom.”
Janousek often has her subjects dress in period costumes, but she also enjoys highlighting features and characteristics that are decidedly modern. An eyebrow piercing, a tattoo peeking out the shoulder of a dress, or dramatic makeup that plays with the light are all details that make wet plate collodion decidedly postmodern.
Kary Janousek / Contributed
“I usually have a storyline behind it that plays into a dramatic human emotion,” she said in her SDPB interview, though too much adornment can have the opposite effect. “Choosing the props and accessories is important.”
Current and upcoming exhibitions
The Silver Linings tour has taken Janousek to Bismarck where she photographed the Former Governor’s Mansion State Historic Site and gave live demonstrations on the wet plate technique. Most of her tour stops will involve historic places and landmarks, with an upcoming trip to the Badlands at Medora on July 20 for another traveling exhibit and live demonstrations.
Janousek will be at Ft. Abercrombie on July 27 for the Weekend Living History series that features live reenactments depicting the “Galvanized Yankees,” a unit of Confederate soldiers who were stationed at Fort Abercrombie before being captured and sent east to prison camps.
Janousek is currently the Jasper Hotel’s featured artist alongside Chase Evert where her work is displayed on the eleventh and fourteenth floors. The Jasper is located at 215 N. Broadway in downtown Fargo.
“I’ve been working with the Jasper for two years now and these particular images I made for this display were taken on their rooftop balcony alongside photographer Chase Evert,” Janousek said. “I wanted to play with the idea of old and new, youth and experience, past and present. So. I invited him to take digital versions of the same images that I made on glass using this antique process.”
Janousek is also displaying at The Rourke’s Midwestern exhibit in which the theme is “The Omnipotence: A Century of Surrealism,” displaying now through September at The Rourke Art Museum + Gallery, 514 Main Avenue, Moorhead.
Visit the artist’s
Linktree
for a list of platforms to view her latest work or to request a booking or commission. Janousek is also on Instagram at
@oldschoolcollodion
.
This article is part of a content partnership with The Arts Partnership, a nonprofit organization cultivating the arts in Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo. For more information, visit
theartspartnership.net.
