"Creativity occurs in the act of encounter and is to be understood with this encounter as its center" -- Rollo May

Mitch Eckert is a one-eyed photographer — a fact he likes to think explains why the medium chose him. One eye and one lens simply see the world on the same terms. His work is grounded in a deep respect for curiosity, the environment, and the creative act of transformation.

Eckert’s current practice bridges sculpture and image-making, exploring how discarded materials and overlooked objects can be transformed through the alchemy of light and process. Over more than twenty-five years, he has worked within the still life tradition to create meditative arrangements that question permanence, value, and the poetics of decay. His projects also extend to cabinets of curiosity, botanical gardens, and natural history museums—spaces where wonder and taxonomy coexist.

He earned his B.F.A. in Photography and Sculpture from Indiana University and an M.F.A. from Ohio University, focusing on Photography and Printmaking. His technical knowledge is grounded in historic photographic processes, particularly the kallitype, which he continues to teach and refine in his studio. Eckert believes that every process must serve the idea - that craft, material, and concept must marry well for the work to resonate.

His photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally and appear in numerous journals and textbooks. His work is held in the collections of 21c Museum, the Butler Institute of American Art, and several corporate and private collections. Eckert lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is a professor of art at the University of Louisville’s Hite Institute of Art + Design, where he teaches all things photography.