JAKE ESHELMAN - EXPOSURE INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL

What we have, we owe to bees. Among the most prolific pollinators on the planet, bees helped create and maintain the biodiverse ecosystems that made it possible for humanity to take root and grow. Throughout our history, human development has been—and continues to be—expressly linked to our intimate and ongoing interactions with bees. And over millions of years, our shared evolution has grown increasingly intertwined. This continues today, for better and worse, as human behavior is adversely impacting wild and domesticated bee populations with unprecedented intensity. Due to the integral role bees play in supporting the ecosystems we depend on, the health of these ongoing relationships affects us all: bee, human, and otherwise.

Admittedly, I hadn’t always understood or appreciated the inherent interdependence between people and bees. In fact, I was terrified of them as a boy. But what was once an irrational fear of bees has since transformed into an existential fear for bees—and, by extension, for the ecologies we all share. And now I wonder: if we look closer at our relationships with these magnificent pollinators, what might we learn about our responsibilities to all other-than-human beings?

To help imagine new ways to address our unfolding ecological crises, Telling of the Bees is an ongoing visual and academic exploration seeking to better understand the nuanced and complex relationships between people and bees. More specifically, this evolving body of work considers the opportunities and implications of these interspecies interactions as they manifest across industry, agriculture, ecological research, environmental conservation, human healthcare, bioengineering, and spirituality.

BIOGRAPHY

Jake Eshelman (b. 1989, USA) is a photo-based artist and visual researcher exploring the complex relationships between people and other-than-human beings. He believes that humanity’s curious and self-imposed dissociation with the natural world provides a palpable backdrop in which we can more fully (re)consider our role in ecology. Through a documentary and intuitive practice, his recent work investigates interspecies relationships in industry, agriculture, and conservation in order to question the tenets of anthropocentrism and the implications behind the Enlightenment rationalization of “nature.”

Eshelman has exhibited work internationally, most notably at Vantaa Art Museum Artsi in Helsinki, Finland; Houston Center for Photography in Houston, TX; The Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge University, UK; The Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, OH; The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington D.C.; Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, UK; Hume Gallery in Chicago, IL; Des Lee Gallery in St. Louis, MO. His work is in the permanent collection of the Chicago Design Museum and has also been included in independently published photo books, collaborative artist books, and even a children’s book by Simon & Schuster encouraging aspiring creatives to pursue artistic careers. He has also been featured in numerous publications including National Geographic, AND2020, Trouvé Magazine, Texas Monthly, The World Sensorium / Conservancy, and Then There Was Us, among others. He also enjoys lecturing about issues he explores in his work, as well as the creative process. 

Jake is currently pursuing his MA in Ecology & Spirituality from The University of Wales, Trinity Saint David. He holds a BA in Classical Literature, with a concentration in mythology, hermeneutics, and reception theory, from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, as well a minor in Studio Art and Art History. Jake is also a member of The Fairy Investigation Society. He is currently based in Houston, TX, working worldwide.