Mitch Eckert

Field Notes

November 1, 2019 - January 2, 2020

Field Notes began with a family visit to Chicago’s Field Museum, where I found myself caught up in a tumult of children running to and fro between dioramas. What struck me was how the dioramas seemed oblivious to the rapidly dwindling animal populations and pristine landscapes of the world. My photographs combine the multitude of simulated realities in natural history museums across the United States; how an entire hall of mammals, for instance, presented in side-by-side museum vitrines collapses the vast geographic distances of the real natural world. Photographing in a haptic manner reminiscent of those children I saw running about, my in-camera multiple exposures capture the complexity and contradictions of the museum experience.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Mitch Eckert is an award-winning artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has been included in a variety of publications from textbooks to journals. After earning his B.F.A. in photography and sculpture from the Herron School of Art, Eckert received an M.F.A. from Ohio University where he focused on photography, printmaking and art history. His work is held in the collections of 21c Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Photographic Archives at the University of Louisville, and Swope Museum of Art. He currently lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky where he is an associate professor of art at the University of Louisville. https://www.mitcheckert.com/