RHONDAL MCKINNEY

b. 1948, Illinois

Growing up in small town southern Illinois to a Barber father and hunting enthusiast, Rhondal Mckinney worked odd jobs throughout high school without a thought of photography. College was inexpensive in the 60’s for intelligent rural kids and so in 1966, McKinney attended the University of Illinois for math.  He worked as a railroad brakeman until he discovered photography. After purchasing his first camera, he quit the railroad for a life of academia.

McKinney’s monochromatic photographs focus on the life and land of rural families and farmers. He often shows panoramic views of farming landscapes with figures, houses, and barns. The Illinois landscapes he captures are a more desolate view of the land framed within a square that calls to his past of rural living, quaint and simple.

His career in academia has led him to Illinois State University where he is professor emeritus of photography.  McKinney’s photographs are sought after throughout the nation within public and private collections as the Amon Carter Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.