Featured Artist - Jeff McDonald
Jeff McDonald is a photographer. He is also a Whitewater Arts Alliance board member, serves as its treasurer, chairs its annual Fran Achen Photography Competition, and offers free photography workshops at the Cultural Arts Center. Jeff said, "The visual and performing arts are key parts of any vibrant community but they require a mix of arts professionals and dedicated volunteers to nurture and maintain them. The Whitewater Arts Alliance sponsors and helps to coordinate some of these efforts and it has been my great pleasure to serve in a small way to further the arts in the Whitewater area."
His photography has been recognized with awards at international photography exhibitions in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe, and Asia. His photographic interests include black and white, long exposure, landscape, architecture, street, and still-life photography. "My objective as a photographer is to produce remarkable images. Motion, unusual visual perspectives, and interesting light intrigue me, as do the found elements of a scene that challenge one to frame them into an interesting composition,” said Jeff.
After completing Bachelor of Music and Master of Business Administration degrees at UW-Whitewater, McDonald spent 18 years in information technology and executive management with one of the largest suppliers of musical instruments and related products in the country, which happens to be based in the Milwaukee area. Later, he served for many years at a local financial institution where he was its Information Security Officer and a member of its Board of Directors. He currently does IT, web, and accounting work for a local company and runs a consulting practice to private IT clients.
Photography is the perfect complement to a career in information technology and business operations. “As a creative person, it has been my good fortune to have molded a career where that creativity is crucial in developing solutions to complex problems. At the same time, photography consumes me visually and has fundamentally changed the ways in which I see the world. One feeds the other,” said Jeff. Fascination with photography began at an early age but only years later did he became active as a photographer. “Pursuing photography as a hobby and avocation is rewarding but can be frustrating in that the time one is able to spend pursuing it is limited by necessity. On the other hand, all the photography I do is a personal project of one kind or another so I am able to photograph what I want, how I want, when I can,” he said.
Part of the fascination is with being in the field with a camera composing and capturing the image while experiencing the surroundings. The other part is with what happens later, in post-production. This happens in the darkroom for film, or more predominantly today, on a computer.
He said, “As a software guy I am in my element working on a computer, but knowing how to press the keys is a far cry from being able to judge the potential in an image and to be able to execute a finished photograph; kind of like how knowing how to dip a brush in paint is a far cry from being a skilled painter. To be effective, both artists must become more than the sum of their tools.”
His most recent project, “A Weekend in Chicago: Photographed During 48 Hours in June, 2019”, had its premiere at the September 2019 “Meet the Board Show” at the CAC where he displayed the book alongside framed prints of ten photographs featured in the book.
“Downtown Chicago is so subject-rich that it is a photographer's paradise. I was fortunate to have been there with an organized group. One of the perks was that we had access to several places which would normally have not been available, at least not at the times of day we were there. One of them was 360 Chicago (top of the Hancock Building), which is open to the public, but not normally at sunrise. The spectacular views from there are even more impressive in early morning light,” said Jeff.
All Jeff’s images from the show may be viewed at his website, jmacpix.com.
