The Heat of the Cool, emerged from a theory that espouses the idea that cool or coolness is a West African phenomenon where its inhabitants mask a deep wellspring of intensity, stress, or pleasure with serenity, calmness, or spirituality. Believing in the transformative power of dance I create, parties, dances, and occurrences of movement, where participants (dancers) and collaborators (DJs, still and motion photographers) converge. From these events, I create large-scale photographs and time-based imagery that renders the moving, dancing body as a symbol of freedom, with the ability to express the ownership of one’s time, space, labor, and self.

This multidiscipline project places at its center the photograph and the depiction of the moving, dancing body, as a divine symbol of freedom, with its own understanding of time, sometimes improvised, sometimes instructive. The body in motion is a lexicon of communication. The ecstatic experiences found in music and dance can be considered a momentary connection to the divine.

Photographs by Cecil McDonald, Jr. For the Birds Trapped in Airports, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2023. In English. 92 pages + additional booklet. 8x11″