Skowhegan History House Museum & Research Center will host Associate Professor Michael Kolster at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 12, at the Margaret Chase Smith Library, 56 Norridgewock Ave., in Skowhegan. The center joins area museums and historical societies in highlighting photography as a way to better understand local history — viewing history through images of the past.

Kolster will speak on and demonstrate the process of glass plate photography creating ambrotypes, a process of producing images on glass. This presentation will offer participants information on the process of early glass plate photography and a unique way this process is being utilized on several current projects. One project compares Maine’s Androscoggin River with other American post-industrial rivers through glass plate photography.

Glass Plate Photograph by Michael Kolster, Foot Bridge, Skowhegan, Kennebec River — 2015. Contributed photo

Michael Kolster, Associate Professor of Art, Bowdoin College. Contributed photo

Kolster is a 2013 Guggenheim Fellow and associate professor of art at Bowdoin College where he serves as the chairman of the Art Department and the director of the Visual Arts Division. Since 2012 he has mounted solo exhibitions at the Schroeder Romero & Shredder Gallery in New York City, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, as well as in numerous galleries across the country. George F. Thompson will publish a book of Kolster’s eastern river ambrotypes this year.

The Kolster presentation will highlight the ambrotype photographic process. Skowhegan History House has designed the first of two exhibits on early photographic processes. The first exhibit describes the processes of the Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, and the so called Tintypes and provides examples of each process. The second part of this exhibit will be curated and share examples of the numerous photographers who practiced their craft in early Skowhegan.

For more information, email the museum at info@skowheganhistoryhouse.org.

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