What is the profession of Mr. McKee in The Great Gatsby?

Mr. McKee’s profession in The Great Gatsby is photographer.

Nick Carraway meets Mr. McKee at the Manhattan apartment where Tom Buchanan conducts his affair with Myrtle Wilson. McKee is presented as a professional photographer trying to make a living from his work, and he talks about photography while attempting to attract Tom’s attention and possible business.

His occupation connects him to the novel’s recurring concern with appearances, images, and constructed identities. McKee produces photographs and enlargements, while Gatsby creates an elaborate public image to conceal his past. Both characters inhabit a world where surfaces can be persuasive even when they reveal very little underneath.

Mr. McKee is sometimes confused with an artist or writer because photography is treated as a creative profession, and because he appears at a socially performative party. In the novel, however, his specific job is clearly identified: he is a photographer. His wife, Mrs. McKee, also participates in the same conversation and social scene.