Laurence Miller Gallery takes pleasure in presenting Ray K. Metzker: Drawing the Line, an exhibition celebrating Ray Metzker’s unique and continually evolving mastery of light, shadow and line. The twelve vintage works on exhibit express the variety of different ways that this 73-year-old modern master of black-and-white has transformed the ordinary into the realm of pure visual delight.

Perhaps more than any photographer of his generation, Ray Metzker has successfully explored a multitude of techniques and strategies while staying true to his medium. He has challenged our definition of documentary photography in Mykonos, Greece, 1979, from his series Pictus Interruptus (1979-80). In Arrestation #10, 1996, he has merged the photogram and the collage into an abstract landscape. He has probed the rich textures of the urban landscape in Philadelphia, 1992, and the natural landscape in Tennessee, 1992.  And he has captured the nervous energy of the big city in his large multiple-image Composite, Yikes, 1966-02. Hung together, the works in the show interconnect into a poetic narrative, referencing back and forth, revealing a personal visual vocabulary more typical of a career painter than a photographer.

Ray K. Metzker has exhibited his photography since 1959 throughout the United States , Europe and Japan. One of his rare and celebrated Composites, Trolley Stop, 1966, is now on view in the newly reopened Museum of Modern Art, where it was first exhibited in 1967. Metzker continues to live and work in Philadelphia.

More information on Ray K. Metzker

Chicago, 1958
8 x 10" vintage silver print
Printed 1963, Ed. # 1/2
Signed on verso

New York City, 1968
From the series Couplets
8 x 10" silver print, printed '84
Signed on verso, Ed. #12/15

Frankfurt, 1961
6 x 8 7/8" vintage silver print
Printed 1961, 11 x 12.75" mount
Signed, Ed. AP-1

Arrestation #10, 1996
Unique collage of two silver prints
9 7/8 x 7 7/8" silver print
on 15 x 14" mount
Signed and dated on recto

Philadelphia, 1964
14 x 11" vintage silver print
Printed 1964, Ed. AP-2
Signed on verso

Philadelphia, 1982
From the series City Whispers
20 x 16" silver print, printed 1982
Signed verso, Ed. # 2/20

Tennessee, 1992
24 x 20" vintage silver print
Printed 1994, Ed. # 6/25
Signed on verso

Philadelphia, 1996
20 x 16" silver print, printed 2002
Signed verso, Ed. # 1/10

Moab, Utah, 1993
From the series Earthly Delights
24 x 20" vintage silver print
Printed 1994, Ed. # 2/20
Signed on verso

Mykonos, Greece, 1979
From the series 
Pictus Interruptus
16 x 20" vintage silver print
Signed verso, Ed. # 28/30

Yikes, 1966-2002
Unique, from the series Composites
14 silver prints, framed 38.5 x 22.5"
Printed 1966, assembled 2002
Mounted, signed & dated recto

Spring Tingle, Philadelphia, 1980
From the series Pictus Interruptus
16 x 20" vintage silver print
Printed 1980, Ed. # 17/30
Signed on verso