Kali Spitzer

Kali Spitzer’s long-term project brings a profoundly historic awareness to the medium, through her perspective as an Indigenous queer woman living on the traditional unceded lands of the Tsleil-Waututh, Skxwú7mesh and Musqueam peoples. Mobilising analogue processes, her work reignites that strong sense of presence so powerfully felt in early photographic portraiture. At the centre, however, are her collaborators – friends, family, members of her community – who have agreed to participate in this exchange and to share their image with us. In these beautiful, resonant pictures, they engage us in conversation, revealing themselves with dignity and pride.  

Tintypes, produced through the wet collodion process, were highly popular in North America during the mid to late nineteenth century. Spitzer’s approach is anything but nostalgic, especially given the negative connotations photography carries amongst historically misrepresented Indigenous peoples. Instead, she brings the process into the present by directly engaging her sitters, recording their faces, gazes, gestures, items of clothing, in precise detail. Her stance honours their magnificent presence as she accompanies their photographic becoming.