Mark Eshbaugh

Mark Eshbaugh is an artist, author and musician and photographer.

Art career
Eshbaugh's primary media are photography and painting and sculpting.

Eshbaugh's photography was among the first to split images over multiple rolls of film in a single exposure in 1995 while studying with Arno Rafael Minkkinen. Eshbaugh has been working with several custom-made multi-roll cameras since 1995. All of his pictures are taken as a single simultaneous exposure. He tends to work with long shutter speeds. The use of multiple negatives creates unusual and interesting shifts in focus. The graphic elements of tape and sprocket holes are a reminder of the optical/mechanical manipulation inherent in every photographic image. He began photography in 1993. He uses several handmade cameras including a panoramic 120 mm camera which he made in 1997 which creates negatives fourteen inches long contact printed and split toned selenium. Aside from traditional treatments like selenium toning, Eshbaugh has also developed meticulous processing procedures in the darkroom to further explore and enhance the unique qualities of his prints.

Eshbaugh’s work has been open to several critical interpretations. In the Reus, Spain biennial Josep Casanovs Dolcet said “Photographers (such as Mark Eshbaugh) began to discover that photography could be much more than a documentary tool, explored new expressive forms and new concepts.” Eshbaugh work was exhibited in two Reus Biennials in 2001 and his work was purchased in 2003  His image awarded the XLIII Gaudi Medal.

Richard Pitnick of Black and White Magazine said: "In looking at Mark Eshbaugh’s beautifully fractured landscapes, one is reminded how truly magical and mysterious a photographic image can be. Using a variety of specially modified cameras that simultaneously hold an expose multiple rolls of film, Eshbaugh conjures surprising, dreamlike worlds where reality becomes what the ‘third’ eye of the camera and the mind of the photographer choose to make it."

Eshbaugh himself says:

"The fractured imagery reminds us of the limitations of the medium and the limitations of our own memories. We cannot capture a complete moment of time with a photograph, just as we can never remember a complete moment of time accurately. Humans can only remember bits and pieces of a moment, and as time moves on biases and changed perspectives cloud that vision. Each fractured pane exists in a paradox of harmony and conflict. One moment the pieces are working together to create a whole image. The next moment the pieces are fighting another, trying to capture your full attention."

Faris-Belt goes on to say, the split framing is utilized by Eshbaugh to “take single slices out of time and space”. And, by doing so:

"several images are combined to be interpreted as a unified whole. Images such as these force the photographer (and the viewer) to consider the frame edges – their relationship and proximity to one another- and their relationship to the subject and content of the image…the interrelationship of frames has a direct bearing on the meaning and interpretation of the image…some of these images are seamlessly ‘stiched together’"

Eshbaugh’s resulting photographs “create significant visual and conceptual ties to their subjects” and “their meaning is intrinsic to the physical interrelationship and/or interconnectedness of the frames”

Eshbaugh has a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Eshbaugh was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2012. He has taught at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Bridgewater State College and Montserrat College of Art. Eshbaugh’s artworks have been featured in over 80 exhibitions, numerous publications and collections worldwide. Including the biennial in Reus, Spain and one person exhibits at Notre Dame University and Texas Tech University. He has also exhibited works at LeLacheur Park home of the Boston Red Sox minor league affiliate the Lowell Spinners. Aside from those photographers he has studied with Eshbaugh cites Harry Callahan as central part of his continuing philosophy as a photographer and artist.

Among Eshbaugh's best known works are Untitled #169, Untitled #232 Untitled #276, Untitled #261, and Untitled #172 which was awarded the XLIII Gaudi Medal at the Biennals Internacionals de Fotografia in Reus, Spain.

Books

 * Alternative Photography Processes. Westford, RMR Press, 2006 ISBN 1-933551-01-1
 * Panoramics. Westford, MA RMR Press, 2006 ISBN ISBN 1-933551-11-9
 * Days End. Westford, MA RMR Press, 2007 ISBN 978-0-615-15262-2
 * Valles Centrales. Westford, RMR Press, 2008 ISBN 1-933551-19-4
 * Somniloquy. Westford, RMR Press, 2006 (Hardcover 1st ed.) ISBN 1-933551-05-4 (Softcover 2nd ed.) ISBN 1-933551-13-5
 * The Selenologist. Westford, RMR Press, 2006 (Hardcover 1st ed.) ISBN 1-933551-09-7 (Softcover 2nd ed.) ISBN 1-933551-14-3

History
Eshbaugh has been a musician for over fifteen years and has recorded on over 40 albums. He was a founding member and the drummer for The Destitutes is the primary songwriter for State of Confusion and has released eight albums of solo music. Eshbaugh has also served as producer for other bands/projects including the Project Cure music series.

Discography (partial list)

 * Mark Eshbaugh - Piano Works 1990-2000 (RMR 2000)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - The Difference a Brain Makes (RMR 2005)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - By Hand and Machine (RMR 2005)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - Torturing the Fool (RMR 2005)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - Repeat as Necessary (RMR 2005)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - GSA (RMR 2006)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - Slide Rule (RMR 2005 – reissued 2008)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - Aural Fixation (RMR 2008)
 * Mark Eshbaugh - Better Tomorrow (RMR 2009)
 * The Destitutes – TV Lobotomy (RMR 2008)
 * The Destitutes - Get Some (RMR 2006 - recorded 1997)
 * State of Confusion - Incompatible (RMR 1993)
 * State of Confusion - Just When You Thought the Lobotomy Was Working (RMR 1994)
 * State of Confusion - Point of Reception (RMR 1995)
 * State of Confusion - Stasis (RMR 1996)
 * State of Confusion - Random Acts of Cruelty (RMR 2002)
 * State of Confusion - Still Standing (RMR 2004)
 * State of Confusion - Godless America (RMR 2005)
 * State of Confusion - Cycle of Suffering (RMR 2005)
 * State of Confusion - Hands Down (RMR 2007)
 * State of Confusion - Depraved Indifference (RMR 2008)

Additional References

 * Laura Blacklow, New Dimensions in Photo Processes, 4th Ed. Boston: Focal Press/Elsevior Inc. 2008. ISBN 978-0-240-80789-8 p. 281
 * Arno Minkkinen, et al., Spirit Level. Westford, RMR Press, 2008 ISBN 978-0-615-18229-2
 * Photographer’s Forum, September 1998, Vol. 20 No 3. ISSN 0194-5467, Serbin Communications, Inc. Glen Serbin, Santa Barbara, CA p. 1, 42-43
 * Photographer’s Forum, May 1998, Vol. 20 No 3. ISSN 0194-5467, Serbin Communications, Inc. Glen Serbin, Santa Barbara, CA p. 13
 * Pinhole Journal, Vol. 16 Issue 3, December 2000, Eric Renner, Pinhole Resource, Inc.  San Lorenzo, NM. ISSN 0885-1476 p. 22-23
 * http://www.rmr-press.com