Mitch Eckert

My love of gardens began after becoming a father, when my wife and I took our young son to St. Louis and visited the Missouri Botanical Garden. I have been an artist since primary school but didn’t take up photography until high school. A bb gun accident left me blind in one eye and so photography made perfect sense – one eye and one lens. Seems to be a perfect fit. This visual impairment lends a unique view of the world and much of my visual exploration of gardens tend to have a shallow depth and softness to the imagery. Throughout my thirty years as a professional artist, I have always sought to explore subjects in a slightly different way than typically depicted. I tend to shy away from common close-ups and aerial views of the landscape in favor of an experiential view, finding wonder in the unexpected. I enjoy the challenge of working in a garden for that reason. The botanic landscape provides peace, beauty and wonder as well as feeling a sense of belonging to something greater. It is a perfect place for walking meditation and looking. I often explore the glass house conservatory thinking not about individual plants, but how the view through the glass perfectly reflects how I see.