Steamboat’s Roland Reed Gallery Gets Platinum Treatment For 1st Anniversary 

On June 3, 2023, The Roland Reed Gallery in downtown Steamboat Springs kicked off its one-year anniversary with the release of two rare images taken by the gallery’s namesake.

Roland W. Reed (1864-1934), a turn-of-the-twentieth century photographer, made it his life’s work to document the traditional ways of a handful of Native American tribes. His motivation came from a place of respect, and unlike others of the time, he did not gain financially from his photographs. Little is known of the photographer, a self-funded and self-directed contemporary of Edward S. Curtis.

Raised in the Fox River Valley, Wisconsin, near a trail used by members of the Menominee tribe, he spent his childhood in awe of their ways and customs. Devastated by what was happening to Indigenous peoples at the time, Reed chose to document their traditions at first in watercolors, before switching to photography.

Known as a pictorialist for his use of storytelling through imagery, Reed dedicated his career to photographing a handful of tribes. He intended to share their stories using his glass plate slides to educate the people of the Midwest with his cousin Roy Williams. Sadly, he never got to complete his mission. During a visit to friends in Colorado Springs, he slipped on a banana peel and died from complications.

Williams inherited his cousin’s collection and gave around 1000 educational talks until his own death. Williams’ heirs inherited Reed’s belongings and put them in storage, where they remained for almost half a century. The collection was eventually bought by the owners of the Kramer Gallery in Minneapolis, who represented Reed’s work until they retired in 2010.

Over a decade later, serendipity led Steamboat local Jace Romick to purchase the collection in 2021 and open a gallery in Reed’s name the following year. Romick, a professional photographer and owner of the Jace Romick Gallery and R-Diamond Gallery made it his own mission to represent Reed’s work with integrity and a parallel precision for detail.

“Upon walking into the gallery, I was immediately captivated by the beautiful images surrounding me,” says Leticia Uzeta, Blackfeet. “I felt very honored by the respectful attention to detail Jace Romick has put into displaying these moments. His knowledge and passion for not only the collection, but the tribes represented brought these images to life during my visit.”

Romick uses three printing formats for Reed’s images, traditional Silver Gelatin, Archival Pigment print or a state-of-the-art Metallic Acrylic Overlay. To mark the first anniversary, he chose to print two images on Platinum-Palladium. The process was used by the world’s master photographers in the last century and remains the ultimate printing method for its ability to convey an extraordinary level of detail. Romick hired Hidden Light, the only commercial printing lab in the country to still offer this service. The Sheriff – the solo non-Indigenous subject in Reed’s collection, and Romick’s personal favorite, Chief in Full Headdress now hang in hand-built frames in the gallery.

 

Roland Reed Papoose, Ojibwe Mother And Child, 1908                  Roland Reed Chief in Full Headdress, Piegan (Blackfoot), 1912 

metallic acrylic overlay, released for the one year                                 anniversary printed on platinum palladium. 

of the gallery.