Ray K. Metzker (September 10, 1931 – October 9, 2014) was an American photographer known chiefly for his bold, experimental B&W cityscapes and for his large “composites”, assemblages of printed film strips and single frames. His work is held in various major public collections and is the subject of eight monographs.
Metzker was born in Milwaukee and lived in Philadelphia from the 1960s until his death. He was married to the photographer Ruth Thorne-Thomsen.
He was a student of Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at theInstitute of Design in Chicago. He taught for many years at thePhiladelphia College of Art and also taught at the University of New Mexico.
After graduate studies at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Metzker travelled extensively throughout Europe in 1960-61, where he had two epiphanies: that “light” would be his primary subject, and that he would seek synthesis and complexity over simplicity.
“What appears in the pictures was the subject’s decision, not mine. I took what they presented—delicate moments—unadorned and unglamorous, yet tender and exquisite.” – Ray K. Metzker
Metzker has always been one of my favorite photographers. Intense, quiet, his work always pushed the boundries or what a photograph could be.
“I am not an objective reporter. I prefer to go further, to the unstated things of our existence. What I can’t understand and grasp seems to lead me.”
“I don’t need exotic places to be stimulated. Out of familiarity comes nuance. The more you revisit a subject the more you’re like to discover.”
