About Jock McDonald

Jock McDonald has photographed the famous and the infamous, the beautiful and the triumphant, the ridiculous and the sublime. Living and working in Napa, CA, McDonald's work is an exploration of portraiture and landscape photography which aims to capture the essence of humanity by focusing on the bonds that unite, rather than the walls that divide. As McDonald says, “If art represents the highest form of hope, it is my desire to throw visual, emotional weight on our shared humanity.”

With a successful professional background photographing commercial campaigns for brands like Levis, IKEA, and Gap, McDonald transformed his practice into fine art photography. His signature technique of weaving cut photo strips together has become a symbolic gesture of interconnectedness. Aerial and industrial weavings take a “gods-eye view” that literally and figuratively widen our perspective on nature and human impact. Portraiture has allowed McDonald to connect with people from around the world of all backgrounds, and to share that sense of humanitarian kinship which he senses is vital to a thriving, equitable, and empathetic world.

Widely collected and exhibited in public and private collections both domestic and international, McDonald continues to expand his practice into public art and large scale projects as impact continues to be vitally important to the artist.

Notable exhibitions include the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Museum Fototeca de Cuba, Texas Tech University, Robert Mondavi Winery, Oakland Museum, DeYoung Museum, Center for Contemporary Arts, Texas, Fortress of Peter and Paul, Leningrad, Ukrainian Republic Social and Cultural Center, Exconvento del Carmen and ITESO Centro Cultural, Guadalajara.

His photographs are in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the University of California San Luis Obispo, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Lehigh University Collection, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A noted lecturer, McDonald has spoken at the Academy of Art San Francisco, Oxbow School, Portfolio Center, California State University, Cal Poly, City College of San Francisco, and the Saybrook Institute.