Ray K. Metzker: Chicago 1957/58 - Laurence Miller Gallery

Laurence Miller Gallery Exhibition May 1 - June 27, 2003

Ray K. Metzker: Chicago 1957/58

Laurence Miller Gallery is pleased to present RAY K. METZKER: CHICAGO 57/58, a selection of Metzker’s very first exhibition prints. Made in Chicago in 1957 and 1958, his first two years as a student at Chicago’s Institute of Design (Chicago Bauhaus), they were included in his first public exhibition at Beloit College in 1959. This group of fifteen vintage prints remarkably demonstrates Metzker’s original and powerful vision at its inception, and offers fresh insight into this acclaimed photographer’s artistic evolution.

Well known today for his deep shadows, strong geometry and precise lines of light, this early group of exhibition prints shows Metzker’s own appreciation for his personal formal vocabulary. Without the advantage of hindsight and curatorial distance, we see Metzker selecting from his earliest student work images that clearly define his later style. A woman with a feathered hat steps out of shadow into light, and exquisite details of her coat, hat and bag shimmer in the bright light, a characteristic of his City Whispers (1980-83). Laundry swaying in the wind creates unusual abstract forms reminiscent of his Pictus Interruptus series (1976-80). A triple exposure of building windows at night creates the rhythms and patterns that emerge full force in his 1960’s Composites. These early prints further reveal Metzker’s career-long emphasis on significant form over the objects yielding those forms.

All photographs are vintage gelatin silver prints from Ray Metzker's first public exhibition.

(click image for detail view)