Dr David Eckersley is an artist and academic whose interests are broadly focussed at the intersection of aesthetics, politics, ecologies and philosophy, with a particular attentiveness to the production of subjectivity. His interdisciplinary practice and research span several different concerns and critical directions, interweaving photography, image-making, writing, and performance to explore the complex relationships between humans, nonhumans, and their environments. It operates in an anticipatory key, attempting to open space for worlds to come, however modest they may be. His work has appeared nationally and internationally. He is currently working on a long-term artistic-research project, Bleak Plateaus, which engages with the peatlands of the Peak District and the wider Pennines region, exploring these historically, culturally, and ecologically important sites as zones of productive ambiguity, where, for example, multispecies subsistence, joy, leisure, the violence of marginalisation and anguish at impending planetary devastation all intersect, making them vital milieus to think with. Further information can be found here. Alongside this, he continues to develop a long form artist book project on the politics and aesthetics of bisexuality.

Dr Eckersley holds a BA in Photography and a Masters in Critical Theory. In 2019 he was awarded a PhD in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies from the University of Nottingham. His thesis, Get Rid of Yourself: Toward an Aesthetics of Anonymity, examines the conceptual history of anonymity in dialogue with practices that explore and experiment with the politics, ethics and aesthetics of anonymity as a way of resisting and refusing the dominant techno-economic system and the majoritarian forms of subjectivity it produces. During his doctoral research, he worked as part of the Public Programme and Research team at Nottingham Contemporary.

He joined the University of Huddersfield in 2023, having previously taught at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham. He is Course Leader for BA (Hons) Photography.

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Dr Eckersley is currently supervising postgraduate (PGR) practice-based research projects on participatory photographic approaches to (re)making place in Armley, a working-class suburb of Leeds, and the politics and aesthetics of AFAB bi-invisibility. He has previously supervised a PGR practice-based research project on the sketchbook as a tool for exploring, understanding and negotiating trans*-masculinity in an anti-trans world.