Rob McDonald (b. 1964) is an American artist born in South Carolina and living since 1992 in Virginia. His photographs have appeared in several fine-press limited editions, including Birdhouses (2007), Poplar Forest (2010), and The Father Box (2018, with John Lane). He contributed two volumes to the original iconic Nazraeli Press One Picture Book Series, Birth Place (2008) and Cy’s Rollei (2010, with Sally Mann and Even Rogers).
His awards include a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2013) and a professional fellowship in the visual arts from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2019) in recognition of his current work focusing on relationships between writing and photography. He has recently published several extended photo essays in this vein, drawn from his ongoing series on the homes and personal landscapes of writers from the American South, titled Native Ground. These include portfolios focusing on Larry Brown (Mississippi), Breece D’J Pancake (West Virginia), Harry Crews (Georgia), and Ernest J. Gaines (Louisiana).
McDonald is a Professor of English and Fine Arts and Associate Dean of the Faculty at Virginia Military Institute.