McKee is a self-taught artist and his unique, three-step artistic process was developed through trial and error. First comes the photoshoot; next, he proceeds to his darkroom where he develops his photographs by applying - in near darkness - the photographic emulsion onto a canvas, wood or paper substrate, an almost instinctive painting process since he only sees the final image when he dips the canvas into the developer solution. The third and most time-consuming step takes place in his studio where he paints over the photograph with oil paints. The result of this intricate process is images that seamlessly merge the objective gaze of the photographic lens with the quixotic sensibility of the artist’s mind.

The choice of the astronaut for his latest series is highly symbolic. Untethered from earth, he is a heroic yet solitary figure searching for something that seems to elude him. His immersive isolation is a metaphor for the paradoxical alienation that our over-connected world engenders. Caught up in our own social media bubble and trapped in our high-tech cocoons, we seem to be communicating like never before when in fact we have never been more isolated. But McKee also points out that similarly to Albert Camus’ protagonist in his novel The Stranger, the astronaut could also represent an attempt to defy the rulebook of modern society, albeit not quite successfully—Camus’s protagonist is literally condemned to death for his defiance. Then again, there is always a price to pay for following your own path in life.