Books
The Father Box - with John Lane (Horse & Buggy Press 2018)
Carolina Writers at Home (Hub City Press, 2015) – with Meg Reid
Cy’s Rollei (Nazraeli 2010) – with Sally Mann and Even Rogers
Poplar Forest (Horse & Buggy Press 2010)
Birth Place (Nazraeli 2008)
Birdhouses (Horse & Buggy Press 2007)
Special Projects
Fancy Hill, Gourd Tree Press, September 2023. Edition of 50, including a collector’s edition of 15.
Spring Suite, a hand-made zine, Gourd Tree Press, March 2021. Edition of 12.
Birdhouses, a letter-press broadside commemorating the 10th anniversary of the publication of BIRDHOUSES [2007], Durham, NC: Horse & Buggy Press, November 2017. Edition of 54.
Native Ground (one), hand-made book including selections from the series, Gourd Tree Press 2014. Edition of 25.
Selected other publications
“Ernest J. Gaines’s Native Ground: Photographs from A Visitation.” storySouth 55 (Spring 2023).
”Imagining Harry Crews: The Landscape of A Childhood.” Studies in American Culture 45.1 (October 2022): 5-32.
“Dream Buildings.” Barren Magazine 21 (September 2022).
”Fancy Hill.” Elsewhere: A Journal of Place (4 April 2022).
"‘Larry Brown, Writer,’ and a Place Called Tula.” Southern Literary Review (15 April 2021).
”Appalachian Ode: Photographs of Breece D’J Pancake’s West Virginia.” South Atlantic Review 85.3 (Fall 2020): 99-15.
“The Father Box,” text by John Lane, photographs by Rob McDonald. Sliver of Stone 16 (April 2018).
“Imprinted with Place: A Conversation with James Applewhite at Home.” North Carolina Literary Review 25 (Spring 2016): 184-196.
“Robert Penn Warren’s Guthrie, Kentucky.” Southern Quarterly 52.4 (Summer 2015): 74-103.
“Native Ground: Selections. Shenandoah: The Washington & Lee University Review 63.1 (Fall 2013).
“1119 Pinehurst Street: Selections from Native Ground.” Eudora Welty Review 5 (Spring 2013): 129-143.
“Native Ground.” Southern Cultures 18.1 (Spring 2012): 21-33.
“Photographs from Andalusia, the Home of Flannery O’Connor.” Shenandoah 60.1-2 (Spring/Fall 2010): 115-118.
“A ‘Personal Masterpiece’” [photographs of Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest]. Virginia Living (September 2009).
“Humble Hideaways.” Virginia Living (September 2008).
“Spotlight: Rob McDonald,” by Dean Brierly, B&W Magazine (March 2008): 84-87.
“Birdhouses.” Southern Spaces [Emory University] (12 July 2006).
“Certain Slants of Light: Flora and Fauna.” CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual (Mercer University Press, 2005): 177-191.
Individual images Light Leaks Magazine (#10 and #12) and Shots (#97)
Book and cover art for University Press of Mississippi, University of Alabama Press, Louisiana Literature Press, University of South Carolina Press, and South Atlantic Quarterly.
Selected recognition
2022 Jerome Stern Award, Best Essay in Studies in American Culture, “Imagining Harry Crews: The Landscape of A Childhood”
2019 Professional Fellowship, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
2014 Nominee, Vienna PhotoBook Award, Anzenberger Gallery
2013 Fellowship in the Visual Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
2012 Charlottesville Pro Camera Photography Award, Nelson Gallery 13th Juried Show
2008 Finalist, 2007 Carl Hertzog Book Design Award, University of Texas at El Paso (Birdhouses)
Charlottesville Pro Camera Photography Award, Nelson Fine Arts Gallery 9th Juried Show
2007 Marjorie Rendl Moore Award, Nelson Fine Arts Gallery 8th Juried Show
Juror's Award of Merit, Nelson Fine Arts Gallery 8th Juried Show
2005 Purchase Award, Madison National Juried Show
2004 Honorable Mention, Texas Photographic Society National Exhibition 12
2002 Juror's Merit Award, DownTownes Gallery
Exhibitions
STUDIO NOTES: My Time with Cy, Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria (May - August 2023)
The Father Box: A Pop-Up Exhibition @ SlowExposures 2018, Zebulon, GA (September 2018)
Birdhouses: The 10th Anniversary, Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria (June-July 2017)
Carolina Writers at Home, Pat Conroy Literary Festival, University of South Carolina, Beaufort, SC (October 2016)
Carolina Writers at Home, Meryl Truett and Friends Gallery, Savannah, GA (February 2016)
Carolina Writers at Home, Scuppernong, Greensboro, NC (2015)
Carolina Writers at Home, Up Front Gallery @ Bull City Arts, Durham, NC (2015)
Native Ground, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO (2014)
Native Ground, Carnegie Hall, Lewisburg, WV (2014)
Native Ground, Novel Experience Gallery, Zebulon, GA (2013)
Interiors, Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA, with painter Melissa Malone (2013)
Native Ground, Cabell County Public Library, Huntington and Milton, WV (2013)
Native Ground, University of Virginia at Wise (2013)
Native Ground University of Mississippi (2012)
Native Ground, Athenaeum Gallery, Alexandria, VA (2012)
Native Ground Converse College, Spartanburg, SC (2012)
Native Ground, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA (2011)
Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, Forest, VA (2010)
Birdhouses, Gallery 86, Waynesville, NC (2009)
Birdhouses, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, Oxford (2008)
Birdhouses, Carnegie Hall, Lewisburg, WV (2008)
Birdhouses, Novel Experience Gallery, Zebulon, GA (2008)
Birdhouses, Center for the Study of the American South, UNC - Chapel Hill (2007)
Birdhouses, Sticht Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (2007)
Birdhouses, Johnson City Area Arts Council Gallery, TN (2007)
Birdhouses, City Gallery, North Charleston, SC (2007)
Birdhouses, Up Front Gallery @ Bull City Arts Collaborative, Durham, NC (2007)
Birdhouses, Shorter College, Rome, GA (2007)
Southern Places, Lexington Art Gallery, Lexington, VA (2006)
Southern Places, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC (2006)
Southern Places, Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill, NC, with potter Ronan Peterson (2006)
Southern Places, Davison County Community College, Lexington, NC (2006)
Southern Places, Museum of Marion County, SC (2006)
Southern Places, Charleston Art Gallery, SC (2005)
Selected group exhibitions
2024
FLOAT, Distant Dialogues, (online)
2019
Anzenberger Gallery, 30th Anniversary Show and Auction, Vienna, Austria
2018
Humble Arts Foundation, On Death: Group Show 58 (online)
Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2017
Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2016
Cassilhaus, Chapel Hill, NC
Southern Icons A to Z, SlowExposures, Zebulon, GA
2014
Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Power Plant Gallery, Durham, NC
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
2012
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA
2011
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
2TenHausStudio, Ivanhoe, NC
2010
CherryLion Studio, Atlanta, GA
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
2009
Snapdragon, Atlanta, GA
Abecedarian Gallery, Denver, CO
23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR
2008
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
Jefferson Center, Roanoke, VA
2007
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC
|Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
Jennewin Gallery, Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island, SC
2006
Fort Worth Community Arts Center, TX
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
2005
Kathleen Ewing Gallery, Washington, DC
Madison-Morgan Cultural Center, Madison, GA
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
2004
70NW Gallery, Milford, PA
Edward Hopper House Art Center, Nyack, NY
Bath County Arts Guild Show, VA
2003
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
Texas Photographic Society, National Exhibition (traveling exhibition)
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, GA
James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount, NC
2002
The Gallery at River City Silver, San Antonio, TX
DownTowne Gallery, Greenville, SC
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke
2001
Charles H. Taylor Arts Center, Hampton, VA
Nelson Gallery, Lexington, VA
Curatorial
Curator, with Meryl Truett and Donna King Rosser, Southern Icons A to Z, Slow Exposures, 2016; subsequent exhibitions at LaGrange College, GA; Greenville Tech, Greenville, SC; University of South Carolina at Beaufort. Entire exhibition acquired by the Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA, May 2019
Juror, with Kevin Miller, SlowExposures 2013
Curator, Land not Lost: Contemporary Views of the Virginia Landscape, Staniar Gallery, Washington & Lee University, 2012
Selected collections
Telfair Museum, Savannah
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Duke University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Mississippi
Northwestern University
University of Texas at El Paso
Bank of America
Fidelity Investments, Boston
Representation
Susan Todd-Raque, Atlanta, GA (since 2009)
Horse and Buggy Press , Durham, NC (since 2007)
Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria (since 2012)