More than meets the eye

In his newest project, photographer Clark Dunbar travels to Montana powwows to capture Native American heritage in portraits

By MSU Alumni Foundation

August 22^nd, 2025

Through a lens, Clark Dunbar ’74 sees the world for what it is. He can tell a person’s story by focusing on their eyes or the majesty and grandeur of Earth with closeups of landscapes. For the past 50 years, the Montana State University alumnus has made it his life’s work to showcase his subjects in their true form.

Dunbar grew up in California but moved around the country for his father’s job. When he was in high school in Alabama, his band played in a PBS telethon event and he became intrigued by the behind-the-scenes production of the program.

“I’d always been interested in visuals, and I had played around with cameras and stills, but never really seriously,” Dunbar said. “But as I was watching the production, I got fascinated by the television camera, how they were moving the camera lens, the shot selections they were making.”

Dunbar’s band was playing around 2 a.m. During the telethon, one of the crew members needed to take a break and asked Dunbar if he wanted to run the camera in his absence. He spent most of the night behind the camera, where the technical producer complimented him on his eye. By the end of the telethon, Dunbar was hooked and decided right then to pursue a film and television degree in college.

Dunbar initially went to Pacific University, a small school in Oregon. Within 18 months, he completed all the courses offered in the film and television program and was stuck. His professors recommended a switch to a larger school with more offerings. After some research, he found Montana State’s program to be competitive with schools in major metropolitan areas.

“I started looking up the staff, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a hell of a staff,’” Dunbar said. “I went to go sign up for all my classes and I couldn’t get into them, because a lot of the ones I wanted to take I had to take requirements that I would have taken freshman year at Montana State.”

Instead of taking courses he had already completed, Dunbar went straight to Rudi Dietrich, a department professor and legendary photographer, and persuaded him to allow Dunbar to enroll in upper-level courses.

While at MSU, Dunbar cited three professors who impacted him: Dietrich, Paul Jesswein and Fred Gerber.

Jesswein and Dietrich taught him two different sides of the photography business. Jesswein taught Dunbar how to hustle and grow in the field, while Dietrich explored the philosophy and art of the medium. Gerber was the department head and a scriptwriter. He taught Dunbar the importance of writing and communicating with clients.

“What I learned from him was how to listen,” Dunbar said. “He spent a lot of time saying, ‘You write with what people are actually saying, don’t write what you think you want to write. You write in real language.’ I learned how to listen to people. If you are dealing with a client, you have to know what they want and how to execute it.”

Over the past five decades, Dunbar has reinvented his photography career several times. From owning his own stock-footage company to taking photos of cadavers for the Department of Veterans Affairs and working in-house for Lockheed Martin, he has a client list that includes Apple, Wells Fargo, Volvo, Mattel and more.

“For some of these people it was their first time dancing. For some elders it might have been their last time dancing. For Clark to capture these moments was so special to me and to our community.”

Clark Dunbar, middle, photographed with Kenny McClure, left, and his son Goober McClure, right, at the Arlee Powwow. Photo by Stacy McElderry

The Powwow Portrait Project

In his newest career move, Dunbar focuses on portraits of Montana’s Indigenous communities. His latest project is a series in which he photographs on location at powwows across Montana in a mini studio with formal, classic-style lighting. Dunbar, who lives in Somers, Montana, believes each subject carries their unique character, history, family, traditions, pride and culture in every aspect and strives to capture that in his photos.

“With my portrait project, I don’t want the audience to see a person standing there. I want them to truly see the person,” said Dunbar, who started the project in 2023.

Dunbar logs hundreds of miles across the state, traveling with his portable studio. Before attending a powwow, he contacts the organizers for permission to set up his mini-studio, a one-canopy tent. At the event, he displays a few of his prints to serve as examples. He also wanders the grounds, asking attendees if they’d like to be photographed and showing them sample images on his phone.

Last year, Dunbar contacted Felicia Messerly to see if he could attend the 59th Milk River Indian Days (MRID) celebration in Fort Belknap. Messerly, a member of the Assiniboine tribe, was on the powwow’s planning committee and women’s flag bearer for her tribe. Messerly said Dunbar was there to build his portfolio and offered portraits free of charge. Attendees only had to pay for prints if they wanted them.

Messerly said vendors come from all over for MRID and charge for their work, so Dunbar offering high-quality portraits for nothing was appreciated. Powwow attendees from toddlers to elders took part in sessions and all had the same reaction: They were captured looking and feeling their finest in their regalia.

“For some of these people it was their first time dancing. For some elders it might have been their last time dancing. For Clark to capture these moments was so special to me and to our community,” Messerly said.

Messerly also got her photo taken by Dunbar. Two of her children are in the U.S. military, one in the Army and one in the Air Force. Messerly wanted to honor them and wore an Army uniform along with her beadwork, ribbon skirt and moccasins. She said her portrait came out amazing and had become a special gift she can pass down to future generations.

“I quit jingle dress dancing a long time ago, but for me to be captured in my regalia and my uniform was really nice,” Messerly said. “It’s a portrait my parents ended up putting in their house and my grandma has a copy too. It’s just something that will live on and can be passed down to my children and grandchildren.”

Dunbar’s work not only helps powwow attendees celebrate their culture, but it can mean so much more. For Aileen Fox-Plant, Dunbar’s work helped her honor the memory of her daughter.

Fox-Plant and her daughter Naomi Plant had attended the Last Chance Community Powwow in Helena since Naomi was young. They would drive for hours to the fall event from Arlee, Montana, and relish a weekend of community, love and laughter. Dunbar attended the event in 2023. Both Aileen and Naomi received their portraits and were pleased with the results.

“I posted the pictures online and I got many compliments,” Fox-Plant said, who is an Anishinaabe (Ojibway/Odawa/Pottawatomi) tribal member of the Wikwemikong Unceded First Nation. “One of my relatives commented on my daughter’s photo, ‘Oh, you have your father’s eyes,’ and that was pretty heartwarming. He did a wonderful job with the portraits.”

On June 11, 2024, Naomi died in a motor vehicle accident. While trying to plan for her funeral, Fox-Plant reached out to Dunbar to see if he would let her use the portrait shot for mass cards and the service. Dunbar didn’t hesitate to help Fox-Plant in her time of grief.

For Fox-Plant, the portrait session has taken on something so much more than a physical reflection of herself or Naomi. It is a pathway to remind her of her daughter — the scholarship lacrosse player, the jingle dancer, the friend.

Naomi Plant, Salish/Anishinaabe/Kootenai. Photo by Clark Dunbar.

Aileen Fox-Plant, Anishinaabe. Photo by Clark Dunbar.

The Last Chance Community Powwow is nothing but good feelings, Fox-Plant said. She enjoys attending the event because of the atmosphere of dance, song and Native American heritage in the state’s capital. Fox-Plant said she will continue to participate in the powwow because she believes it is good medicine for her and she cherishes the memories of going with her daughter.

“Being a jingle dress dancer, they say it originated with the Anishinaabe people and they said that the dress originated from our tribe. I just started dancing again after a 23-year hiatus. It brings me so much happiness to dance jingle again. And to have danced jingle with my daughter again was so special.”

Dunbar has found personal and professional growth through this project. He said he has learned about the various Indigenous tribes across the country and understands the importance of celebration through powwows. Dunbar said elders have complimented him on his work and understand the value of having regalia portraits available for community members. This summer, Dunbar has begun “season two” of the project and plans to attend Montana powwows and hopefully expand into other states.

The Powwow Portrait Project has started to receive attention from media outlets. In 2025, the Holter Museum of Art in Helena will host an exhibit of Dunbar’s work. From late night beginnings behind the TV camera, his interest in capturing the world has never wavered.